Hunted by Two Warriors
by Engineer Jess
Summary: Warp Darkmatter is back (after my last story), this time hunted by both Zurg and Star Command. And, in the most impossible occasion, he meets his lost love again... Novel length.
1. Back to Xaneda

**Author's Notes:**  
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command © Disney/Pixar Choi Zarah G'Deneb © Engineer Jess  
Thanks to EMZ for ideas to this story and criticism... and thanks to CaptainBuzzLightyear for detail help.   
---------------  
  


  
  


**A long time ahead in the galaxy, far, far away...**  
**Episode 2:**  
**HUNTED BY TWO WARRIORS**   
  
-----------   
  
You.  
I see you.  
You're in my heart.  
I see you with the eyes...  
The eyes of my black soul...  
There are the shadows in my heart  
that tell me you are there somewhere.  
Maybe you think of me, too, in your dreams...  
Or, am I forgotten? I know you once felt the same.  
Zarah... are you still there, somewhere... waiting for me?  
I still love you... And your smile is here, with me, as if you were real.  


  


.........................

A yellow crystal lamp cast its warm light upon a table. A man leaned to his hand and stared at a holo-picture where lines of text cruised. Bored he snapped the holo-screen shut and stood up from his chair.

"Half a year... time goes fast forward, but I can't just dispossess this memory..." he sighed to himself. "And I was gonna brighten up myself with that holo, not to begin scribble gooey poems. What would the others think seeing me mushy like this... a big, tough man _writing poems_? You're pathetic, man, you know that."

But the thoughts did not vanish. "It's been six months... I guess _you_ have started a new life, finally found someone to lighten up your loneliness..." he pondered, taking a coat from the back rest of the chair. "Gotta go back to my work... bye, bye, memories!"

Warp pushed a button on the wall and a pair of electronic ladders whooshed down from the ceiling, leading to a hatch. He stepped up and vanished to the darkness.

---------------

 Two red eyes flashed in a violet-murky chamber. In front of a large screen, a menacing figure took reports from a couple of dubious-looking men.

"You ought to find him! This is not a request, it's a deadly demand!"

"We were close then, once. But after that, he vanished like he would not exist any more."

"He is alive. He is out there. And he will face his death in my hands as long as I breath and rule it all!" the cloaked man at the comm. device roared.

"We continue the search, sir."

"And you better DO it, because I, I shall not bear deception against ME! I am the morning and the evening star, hmm... I mean death star, a black hole that will soon conquer all the pathetic solar systems that... hmm... well, that's for my brilliant-malicious speech! You go after him, now!"

Zurg shut down the holo and flopped down to his throne, swearing silently in his mind, before he let the chamber echo in cataplexy: "Curse you, Darkmatter! I'll get you, even if I have to haunt you till the end of the universe!"

-------------------

 Choi Zarah G'Deneb took long steps along a corridor of Star Command HQ. She had a wide smile on her face. Every one passing her wondered what was going on. Hardly anyone had seen this little creature with such a grin for a long time. Usually, at least during the latest months, she was timid and isolated, barely giving a light smirk when she was greeted.

 But now, it was her holiday time! Finally an escape from the work, albeit she enjoyed it. Only her holiday plans were a bit strange, she did not have an actual route. She had thought a kind of cruising a bit here and there around the galaxy, something a bit adventurous. While she was there leaping forwards and buttoning her small coat, she almost stumbled to XR who was rolling from behind a corner.

"Aww, isn't it my sweetie! I haven't seen you in weeks! Hey, what's the big celebration 'cause ya look so jubilant? Did ya find a uni-buck from the corridor floor?" the robot sang.

"No, no, I'm taking my annual leave. I put the LGM to handle my energy source project. We're developing some new parts to the reactor which's prototype was completed months ago", she answered friendly.

"No... just when I found ya, ya're gonna leave me...?" XR moaned in his usual way. He did not mean anything with it, it was just casual flirting.

Zarah's eyes attached to the wall as a displeasing memory dug itself up from her thoughts. '_Leave me..._' the words were almost the same, but the voice was different, a deep voice of a man...

She woke up from her illusion when someone was waving fingers in front of her vision.

"Good day, there, ma-am. Do you still remember the rest of us?" a voice came above her.

"Oh... I'm sorry, I was in my thoughts. Good day to you, Captain Lightyear, ranger Nova and ranger Munchapper", she greeted the rest of Team Lightyear that was gathered around her.

"How is your work today, Miss?" Buzz asked politely.

"Well, I was just telling your more down-to-earth fella here that I'm gonna cruise away for to take some relaxment", she giggled and pat the robot's helmet. With her joke she had meant mainly the size difference, it meant always for her stretching her neck when she was talking to someone, except the LGM... and XR.  The rest of the members of Team Lightyear were kind of half-acquainted for her, since the happenings beyond six months. 

 The discussion of the rangers turned to the engineer when they had left her and headed to the launch bay. 

"She was completely a different person today!" Booster noted.

"Hmm... didn't you XR once tell that she was somewhat a happy woman? You worked with her last summer, didn't you?" Buzz fingered his chin.

"Well, she was! Like a songbirdie! Just tittered and chirped for my joy..."

Lightyear rolled his eyes. "That wasn't exactly what I meant. As long as I have seen her here, she has been like a shadow."

"Certain rumours have told that she ate antidepressants for months after we brought her back from... what was it... Yrrz?" Mira commented.

"Yrmh, missy, grunt it just like ya'd been told that you gotta pass level 11 an ice cream cone as yar weapon! YRRRMHH!" XR helped.

"Wonder what on Rhizomia she went through there? If I had escaped such torture and helped to save one hundred workers and then made a success with a magnificent new invention, I'd be very happy." Booster raised his brows.

"You said it..." Buzz smacked his lips and looked contemplating.

--------------------------

-Two days later, somewhere beyond Rigel System-

 Zarah sat in the pilot seat of her personal speeder. There was no need to use Star Command's personnel ships any more as she afforded now to buy her own. She enjoyed high earnings and more was to come, as her skills in terms of the landanah project had been noticed and she was granted with a promotion.

 But... what was the money there to bring her? Nothing. Completely nothing. Only there was the woe of desolation, black nights that fell upon her. Never, never she had felt herself as miserable as during the previous months. In addition, she knew the reason for it as she fumbled her collars and the metal that was hidden under them. Her only memory... her only company, this soulless piece of steel, but still there to remind about the lost one, the only one that had ever cared for her...

 "Okay... where am I gonna go..." she stopped her mind-play and stared dull at the holo-map. "I got actually none kind of destination... hmm..." She leaned back in her seat and just let her imagination run wild. "Dandes... no. Kalajoki System... no. Mondoshawan... nope, doesn't sound interesting. Xaneda? But there's nothing, except the mining moon. Not even a colony any more, just desert and mountains. A nice, empty place to play a hermit and descend into self-pity? Is that what ya want to do during a holiday? C'mon, pull your socks up, you're an adult!"

 But there was something nearly mythical in that planet that intrigued her. And now a recollection of some scientists' talk came into her mind. A small conversation was gone through not so long time ago about the mineralogy of the main planet; could it namely be possible to find some kind of occurrences, perhaps more landanah? She knew that the planet was quite unexplored. Therefore, an interesting thought came into her mind. What if she would go there to examine a bit, would maybe spend a couple of days there, do some mineral tests and enjoy the ravishing solitude that her depressed mind had to come to thirst? It felt odd, how she had at first thought to search for company for her vacation, but now headed towards wilderness where she knew she would find no intelligent life anywhere.

 Thus, she snapped the autopilot on and gave the computer the instructions to head straight to Xaneda. She went to the backroom of her ship to check out what kind of scientific instruments she had there. A small particle accelerator, out-of-date, but still working. Mineralometer, scales, all kinds of old-fashioned little widgets, a structure analyser along with some bio-plastic cubes for storage. What was there to prevent her any more? She had enough food rations as well as water and there was no need for a space suit in Xaneda, since the atmosphere was suitable for a human being. The climate was quite hot, but she thought she could survive.

 The view through the windshield was extremely dismal. Dry, grey sand continued wherever a random spectator cast his eyes. Here and there were rocky cliffs and in the horizon a mountain range was delineated like a mirage, waving above the hot ground.

"Ahh, Xaneda!" Zarah blurted sarcastically to herself and let the ship remain the low flying. She wanted to get near the mountains. There would be the best possible places to do some research. After two hours of slow flight, she thought to find a good patch and landed to the shadow of a big boulder. The glaring sunlight blinded her eyes for a moment as she stepped off her vehicle. It was sweating hot out there, but after the cold vacuum of the space, it was welcome for her. She took a big bottle of suntan cream and poured it over her very pale skin. She actually did not stand much sunbathing, so she also dressed to a light shirtwaist, put huge sunglasses on and decorated her head with a wide-brimmed hat.

 As she leered there around her in order to search for some knoll to start the mineral studies, she remembered how she had, for the first time six months ago flown to the second moon. It jutted in the sky emerald green of its lush forests, unlike its grey sister. Xaneda... a planet that no one knew well in this galaxy. A planet that bathed in gloomy mystery. There were the legends, ancient stories that told odd things about this planet. Nevertheless, no one believed in them seriously. It was said that a race of very intelligent aliens once lived here, but then had come a catastrophe along. The planet, because of some altering of its sun, began to dry very fast. The seas evaporated away. Therefore, according to the saga the people dug themselves under the ground and founded a new society there. But after some generations had passed, a lethal epidemic would have struck all the colonies and destroyed the race to its last member... Zarah's nanny android had told her bedtime stories that still some people lived here, hidden, strictly away from the view of the Galactic Alliance. A sanctuary for hunted murderers and scoundrels, maybe, who knew?

 She giggled lightly to her wild imagination and to those fairy tales that once had got her to the world of soporific. "Okayday... where was I? Yeah, talking about the research, there's a nice shadowy place..." She screwed up her eyes for to peep through the sunlight a bit further. She went back to her ship, took a flagon, a backpack where she had jammed her instruments and food and then laced her huge and heavy landing boots. After a couple of hours of walking, she reached her destination. The travel had taken so much, because on the way she had studied interesting-looking pebbles and their structures with her analyzer. She gradually forgot the time and place as this new activity took totally the control over her.

 But unfortunately nothing valuable was there to find. She went trough dozens of tests and only discovered some granite and gneiss. "Wonder why this mother planet is so worthless... unless the richness is there deep under the ground", she sighed. "Nah... they're be never discovered in there. The surface of this planet is somehow so intact that any scanner doesn't penetrate it further than a couple of tens of metres. And I guess the scientists that once had their colony here, have studied this area where I am straying now."

 She sat down on the sand to take a break. She had wandered kilometres towards the mountains and now she was very close to them. Her sitting place was actually in a wide canyon, scarps on both sides, rising to the highnesses dry and majestic. Vegetation was found nowhere here in this area, not even any cactus-like plants.

 A small gust of wind surprised her there as she was enjoying some chocolate. Some sand was blown onto her delicacy. "Odd. It has not been winding at all when I've been traipsing around..." Then came another blast, this time a lot more violent. She winced and looked to the horizon. "Jumping supernovas..." she gasped as her regard approached the scene. The whole view was grey from the sky to the ground. A sand tornado whooshed with a magnificent speed towards her. This was the last she had expected: a sand storm. Moreover, on this planet, the twisters grew crude and dangerous very fast. Now, after a few minutes of the first little whisper of the wind, it was hazardous to stay out much longer.

 She picked fast up all her things and looked for shelter with her regard. "Oh, no... I'm a bit in a wrong place for a raising storm... I have to try to run towards the other side of the canyon, there seems to be a lot of rocks and maybe some hole where I could hide..." If the hot atmosphere did get sweat drops on her forehead, at least this menace did. Like a ghost, the squall approached her as she ran with her heavy bag towards some life-saving protection. 

...To be continued... 


	2. Descending into the mysteries

2. Descending into the Mysteries

After ten minutes, the sand storm seemed to surprise Zarah from every angle. The whole vision was blurring and the flying particles hurt against her sensitive skin. But she didn't care about that, more important was to shield the respiratory organs. In such a storm, anyone could easily suffocate to the flying sand. She quickly undressed the flimsy silk shirt she had over her tank top and put it over her mouth and nose. The goggles she turned back over her eyes.

 She was in the middle of the tornado, since the sand whirled in a circle around her. It was a bit easier to see forward, and for her luck she spotted an indistinct shadow somewhere in front of her. But then the wind veered and began to blast straight against her face. She had to get there, to the shadow! It was her only hope! A fear of death filled her heart, a panic, a disturbing memory beyond half a year... in her thoughts she was again in that electric chair in that disgusting chamber, feeling the needle-sharp gravel just as if that current had raved in her body. Why had she been so stupid to come here? It would be totally her own fault if she'd die here in the middle of this wilderness. No one would ever find her here; her memory would be buried into the grit.

 As she fought herself forwards, she hit her forehead against something. A solid stone. Was that the shadow she had seen? No, there was something more. With her palms, she groped the rock that seemed to continue to her right side. There! There was the shadow, leading into something! A cave! She bowed and groweled into the man-sized hole. Now she was able to take the shirt away from her face and leer around where she was. "Oh, boy..." she sighed and noticed that she stood in a tunnel of some kind. The walls of the cave looked quite peculiar for to be formed just by the forces of nature. They were like cut straight from the stone wall. She went more in as the wind howled and dusted the sand in. Luckily, she had a crystal torch with her, so she could get some light into the murky cavity she entered downwards. "Where the heck am I?" she wrinkled her brows and kept taping. "This is certainly dug here by a limb of an intelligent life form. Could this be some kind of a mine tunnel of the former science colony that lived here?" she pondered. Suddenly in front of her was an impasse. Dumbfounded she touched the rock ceiling and sat down to lean against it. "This ain't a mining tunnel... maybe a temporary shelter against the weather for researchers? Odd..."

 She decided to take a snack as she was sitting there. No sign was announced, that the storm would end. It could take hours, even a day until she was able to get out. She had water and a compass along with her research implements with, but she cursed that she had left her communicator in her ship. There was no way to call for help, if something else less favourable would happen. "Ah... why did you have to be so desultory? You stupid lass!" she scolded herself as she gnawed her ration.

 "Wrrrrrrhssssss..." a hiss out of the blue came from somewhere. 

Zarah startled and pricked up her ears.

"Now what the blast was that? That wasn't produced by the sand storm!"

"Srrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhsssssssssssssss---wrrrrrrrrrrrrssssssshhhhh" the mechanical noise continued.

Now she saw what had caused the abhorrent buzz. Beside her, an electronic eye scanned her and the rest of the tunnel. It had come from a small hatch in the wall.

In panic, she screamed and stood up from her position. The surveillance camera-looking device blinked nastily and began to peep as a yellow light ignited in it. And then, Zarah heard another noise. The ceiling opened and a net was dropped upon her. While trying to get away from the trap, she got tangled up to the mesh so badly that she soon was not able to move at all.

 A few minutes she laid there her every body part pinned and tied in a tight packet. "Great! What next? A couple of cannibals gather around me and put a cauldron to warm up for my pleasure...?" Her question was completed as the dead-end wall opened. It was just decorated to look like a stone surface, but actually was a metal door with an automatic open-close-system. Two sturdy men stepped from it into the cave.

"Well, well! What have we got here?" the other one wondered crudely.

"A spy!" the second one interjected.

Zarah began in a calm tone: "Would you gentlemen please help me out of this thing. I'm not a spy, I just came to search for shelter from the sand storm."

But the answer was not goodly-natured at all. "Don't toy with us. You're a spy. What else would no one do on this planet?"

"I guess Zurg has sent that chick. It has been a long time since espionage has been going on from his side. But I guess it has started again..."

"I was not sent by..." she sighed.

"Ya shut up! You're in a big trouble, gal!"

She was grapped from her arms and dragged in through the door, the net still around her. Next she found herself in an elevator that in a flash went down into the mysteries underneath the ground.

--------------------

 The net mess was ripped off Zarah with a pocketknife. 

"I pity the good meshwork! We gotta go and install another one to the booby trap", the other man growled. Now Zarah saw strictly who was with her. The lastly spoken was a purple-skinned alien with human-looking body. He was extremely strong and robust, but a bit short for a grown-up. Then she attached her eyes to the second one. He was a human, black, and alike his company, sturdy and shabby. Both looked like crooks angled from some backstreet.

"Would you at least kindly tell me where I am?" she snapped. She was now brought to some kind of a control room where different kinds of monitors beeped and flickered.

"Ha, Neder, didya hear what she said? _Would ya kindly tell me where I am?_" the black guard raised his voice to falsetto and burst into horselaugh after his poor imitation.

"Asking stupid questions. Just like spies do when they try to convince they're innocent!" the purple one responded.

"Now you come with us!" the other guard bawled and gripped Zarah's arm quite rudely. She twitched and was forced to follow the men.

 They left the room and next walked long through murky corridors where air-conditioning pipes crossed the ceiling and small, green lamps glowed dismal light. 

"With what have you tangled up again, Zarah..." she cursed in her mind and was very nervous of the future. "Last year you managed to get captured by Zurg... now you're again in trouble and this time there may be no way out of this... Choi, Choi, why do you have to be so heedless...? You wanted an exciting holiday, now you get to enjoy it... this, however, seems to be a bit too dangerous. I should have decided the destination when still being in Star Command HQ... craters, if Team Lightyear now knew where I am, I'd have some kind of light in the end of the tunnel..." Then the words of the guards cut short her mind-play.

"When does this Zurg-guy learn not to bring his spies here? He shoul' get the point that they never find outta this place, once they descend the dungeons..." the man leading her commented to the other alien.

"Sheesh, Eisley, what did he enrol this time? A teeny bopper wearin' overalls!"

Zarah's brains boiled and she spat back to the highnesses: "Darn it, I'm not a teen gal, I'm a highly educated scientist and a spy of Zurg just when chicken have teeth!"

Eisley, the human, poked her and blurted angrily: "Ya just shuddup! You should be at school at this time of the day or writing fluffy poems on pink papers! A highly educated scientist... hah! There ain' no scientists on this planet any more, so dontcha claim any nonsense. Glad they left the colony so we can live here in peace."

"By the way, Eisy, what are we gonna say to our boss...? He was having bad tantrums already today. He ain't gonna be happy to hear that we have a spy here..." the second guard noted worried.

"Blasting pulsars, Neder, ya're right! We're gonna get big scolds about this... hope he unravels his anger to this irritating gal!"

Zarah bit her lips. Now she was very troubled. It did not sound very tempting to step in front of some fierce boss who had a bad day, already. "And what was this planet supposed to be? Unpopulated? Oh, my, are the legends of this place really true...?"

 After an endless time, travelling in corridors, the group came in front of a large metal door. Neder opened it and nudged her in. They entered a totally new world: the room in sight was a large hall, several doors on both walls. On the opposite wall was also a way in to somewhere. The decoration and furniture were all luxurious, far, far away from the cheerlessness of the aisles. Soft mats covered the floor; large indoor plants conquered the corners. The men dragged her straight to the opposite door and Eisley knocked it cautiously.

"Yeah, what..." a disappointed and harsh voice answered from the room as the guard opened slightly the door. The question was continued with a couple of hackles.

"Um... Boss, we're pretty sorry to interrupt your dinner, but we have som'thing..." While Neder explained further, they all went in. Zarah got now her hackles up. At the rear end of the room, a huge figure sat back against them at a table, obviously eating something. He wore a black cloak, whose hood was put over his head. His wide shoulders looked tensed and she could sense crossness in him. She was absolutely right. Straight ahead, the robust figure shrugged and hit his left fist onto the table.

"We have problems, again, do we?" he groaned. "By thundering quasars, at first the sand storm puts half of the surveillance cameras black, then the radars go dim, whoosh, one of the crystal reactors blows up and then I get this smoke in my lungs from that dratted explosion! The last drop was that my meal was burned!" he stopped to couch. "And... I guess you brave guards tell me there's a spy!" he nearly yelled and did not even mind to turn around.

Eisley was just delighted that their leader had guessed so right. "Yea, that's true! How did you know?"

The man at the table sighed. "It doesn't need a sixth sense... well, who is he?"

" She's a spy of Zurg! Definitely!" Neder magnified with a bombastic voice.

"_She_? Ya won't tell me you brought some Gravitina here?" the boss lost his temper more and more.

"No, well, she's some teeny bopper..."

"_A teeny bopper?_  Guys, don't banter with me. I wonna (cough) eat my black mess... in peace."

"Well, If you'd turn around, you would see..." the other guard began.

"You brought her _here_? Just perfect." was the sarcastic answer. But then he sighed and started the next sentence with a softer accent: "Look, guys, I know that you do your best. I jus' am tired to this day an' ev'ry setback. Well... what do you have to say for yourself? Why did ya come here?"

Neder poked Zarah with his elbow quite painfully. "Hey, he talks to you! You go on now and figure out what ya say!"

She inhaled anxiously but began with a determined voice: "First of all, I am not a spy of Zurg. I came on this planet, because..." But she never got her sentence finished. Something odd namely happened in front of her.

Just when he heard those words, the mysterious boss stood stormily up from his chair. The movement was so hard, that the table jerked and half of the dishes on it fell onto the floor and shattered into tens of pieces. The chair he had had was thrown to the wall and also it went to matches. Now it was visible how huge the man was as he posed with his full height, his head almost in the ceiling, the hood covering his face. Zarah screamed in sudden fright and took a tap backwards with the guards who were at least as scared. 

---To be continued---


	3. You are again with me

3. After All This Time, You're with Me, Again...

The tall boss in black took large steps towards Neder, Eisley and Zarah. In the middle of his blazing headway, he ripped the hood away from his head and panted: "It can't be YOU! It can't be! My poor li'l thing?"

She got her eyes wide and she gasped for breath of what she saw. The man approached her in a second, gripped her from shoulders and nearly fell her to the floor. She was very quickly put to sit on the knees of the boss, bent almost horizontally and took into his powerful arms.

"Warp---mhhpfff...! Mfff!" was all she had the time to produce out of her mouth before he pressed his lips very hard on hers. 

 The uncanny leader was Warp Darkmatter. He had shocked awake to hear a _too_ familiar voice behind him, after all this time, _that voice..._ He could not believe his ears. It could not be real. But there she had been, flesh and blood in front of him, looking as scared as he had for the first time seen her. The poor little thing so afraid, again! He could do nothing but ensure that she was real, close her into his arms and...

 She was not a hallucination, not a fake image of Warp's tired mind. The more he made this fact sure for himself, the more fierily he caressed the girl in his enfold. He kissed her hard and greedily, even pressed her head more towards him. The black wide sleeves of his cloak kept the view hidden as she lied there in his huge arms. She had gone feeble on the first moment he had ardently taken her into his embrace and squeezed her against him so that it was difficult to breath for her. He in turn kissed her lips, cheeks and neck. She shivered as she had had an ague; it was not far that she would have passed out. But Warp was only provoked by this, he held her chin with his fingers and kept her mouth open for to kiss her even more fundamentally.

Five minutes the guards had been standing in a shock and watched the whole show. Neder leered at his company, his mouth distorted and eyes round like two full moons. Warp had totally forgotten their existence, now he only saw Zarah. He even seemed to have forgotten his cough. At first, the other guard hacked a bit, for to try awaken their boss under the spell. Warp did wince a little, but did not turn his eyes from the girl, only smiled at her heartily and fondled the corner of her mouth with his thumb.

"Zarah..." he whispered hardly audible to the flaccid and quivering maiden. He was ready to kiss her again as he heard another cough beside him. Some kind of sense of reality streamed into him. He quickly raised his regard and encountered the aghast expressions of the guards. 

 In a bolt he stood up, lifting Zarah on her feet. "Um... eh..." he stammered in his confusion and leered around as there was a hundred eyes watching him. He let her go to stand on the floor, but her legs did not support her and she fell back into his arms. Warp grimaced and attempted to get her stay in balance. 

"Now look what you did, she's so scared of you that she won't even stay on her feet!" Warp scolded angrily the thunderstruck guards. "How did ya dare to treat the poor thing like that? Now, it's fine, Choi, just try to not to be a boiled macaroni..." he hushed the girl. He gave a look at Neder and Eisley who still stood there rigid eyes wide open. "Now, you go and don't mess up any more!"

"Ermh... what about... the spy?" Eisley stuttered.

"She's not a spy... she's... _an old friend_." Warp blurted back. The guards looked at each other suspiciously.

"Now, don't you just stand there... ehm, wait, I got a function for ya... you take her with you and make her a nice bath ready, then a room with all possible comforts ya guys can invent. Ask the chef to make a proper meal and this time not to burn it and find her nice clothes... look, now, did ya mess her suit like this?" he wiped some dust from her shoulders left from the sand storm.

 Next, Zarah tottered forwards along a corridor supported by Eisley. She was still so listless after Warp's 'attack' that she did not comprehend where she actually was and with whom.

"So... you know our boss, ma-am?" Neder uneasily asked.

She cleared her dry throat. "W-Warp...? Was that he... wasn't it...We're... old... friends."

Again, the guards leered at each other quite sceptically.

"Em... we're sorry we handled you a bit crudely, but we didn't know that you and the boss..."

The men leaded her to a bathroom door. "Here ya can take a bath... and there's even a warm sauna, so just relax and be... eh... Mr. Darkmatter's guest."

As the door closed after her insecure steps, Neder and Eisley changed an expression that maybe would have made Warp give them a payoff.

"_And old FRIEND..._?" they interjected in unison.

"I never knew boss had a crush!"

"Ya said it... ya won't treat... emh... 'an old friend' like that..."

"And it certainly was not our fault that that missy could not stand on her feet. She walked very well when we brought her in!"

The men shook their heads and left the bathroom door.

 Warp was prepared to achieve Zarah. He had done everything possible to look handsome and attractive. Primarily the black cloak had been thrown to the refuse chute. He was now dressed to black trousers with a silver-shiny belt, in his feet he had heavy black leather boots that were polished. A tight, matt-black T-shirt let his huge upper body muscles be dimly visible through the canvas. In front of the mirror, he spread hair gel into his coiffure and even polished his big teeth. "Now, big boy, ya look cool! Time to impress her...!" Lastly he grazed his goatee to ensure that no beard hair was jutting out to wrong direction. No one could say had he ever been cockier, but now he trimmed every last detail of his outfit. At least the egoistic features of his character were now quite much in action.

 However, the whole show flattened when Zarah was brought in. The guards had not found her quite appropriate clothes. She had oversized jeans on, and a men's shirt, whose large sleeves were wrapped up many times.

Warp covered his eyes and exhaled indignant: "Didn't I order you NOT to mess up any more? WHERE have you guys dug up those clothes? From the dirty laundry?"

"Sorry, boss... but this was the only suit we could find. They're from your wardrobe! They're the best, at least! We know your clothes are the best, aren't they...?" Eisley whined.

Warp ground his teeth so that they creaked. He took the girl under his arm and pointed the door to the others. "Now go and get her the food. And I'm not taking any responsibility of the consequences, if the steak and stuff is burnt to freakish clods again! Besides, why didn't you go to visit Miss S'Ŏr Uné? Just a short flight across the cave and she'll get you clothes from her stock. EU-size 36. And NO pink, thank you!"

 As the door banged, Warp put her sit on a chair opposite to him at the table. She was still quite dizzy, but attempted to begin a conversation.

"Uh... where am I?"

"This place, the community of Xatagah is..." he began eyeing the girl with a tender expression "...how I would say it... the paradise of reformed criminals. Well, all the folks that live here are foxes hunted by someone and need a hole to hide. That's maybe how I could put it into words."

Zarah's mind opened to remember the legends she had just reminisced for a few hours ago. So, there were cities under the ground and she was now in one of them. "So, the saga is true, then...?"

"Yeah... I'm glad that this place exists. Otherwise I would have been worm food for ages" Warp sighed.

"How did you get here? I mean, I know nothing about you, what happened then..." she prevented tears coming into her eyes as she recalled the farewells. "...then six months ago? How did you survive?"

He fingered his chin and looked at the ceiling. "I... lived in Trade World for a few weeks. I was in the middle of abjection; behind ev'ry corner was a spy of that notorious Purple Purport... one day I just happened to hear an intriguing conversation of corner table bums in some underground bar. Of course, I had heard fairy tales of this planet, but in their speech, it sounded so real. So... I joined the guys, knowing that it was a huge risk to do that, but what other change could I had had? They were waiting for some kind of approval of higher quarters to get here. Well..." he stopped for a while.

"You mean you got here with them?" she asked.

"Yea. Yet, it was difficult as to try to put a football through a needle eye... the transport was at first this kind of hood-over-your-head, mean completely blindfolded... then I was kept here in jail for a while when the folks found out who I was. The security is pretty tough here. Then they somehow managed to get proves to my story. I told them just what I had done to you... and how I had betrayed Zurg. One word from a reliable source was needed that The Izzard was after me... and I was immediately accepted here among the other crooks. Yeah, those fellas that dragged you in, are two guys from the group with which I came. They're not very full-witted, but quite efficient in their tasks. Former pickpockets."

Zarah stared at him eyes round. "What a story...! I'm very glad you have found a good place to stay! So... do you guys do something here for living, too? This property is not stolen, is it?"

Warp's expression turned more severe. "No. If someone here turns again to dim thingies, he's a goner. This community _works_ for its moola and well-being."

"But... you gotta have then some kind of organisation you work for?"

"That's right. A big amount of us work for a science company that has its home in the solar system of Na-Sula. I dunno if you have heard about this, it's a place beyond the regions of the Galactic Alliance. Well... it gathers workers from here and there; actually one of the descendants of the ancient culture that once lived here keeps the company rolling. Guess you've heard the common bedtime story about how the folks here used to live before this became a crook asylum. Well, all the natives did not get mowed by the disease, but moved away. They have a colony in Kar-Sina, it's the main planet of Na-Sula System. But they can never return here, they have their own reasons..."  

Zarah looked at him her head atilt. "You seem to have some kind of higher position here, do ya? I mean, ev'ry one calls you boss and so."

Warp's conceit got again more energy and his expression turned very smug. "That's right. Once some profits for serving Zurg. Ya know, I was a technology spy. That gathers a lot of knowledge. I'm helping a couple of goggled geeks to test security problems of different kinds of communication devices. And I lead here the sector that manufactures some goofy widgets for the same enterprise."

Warp was about to start to question Zarah, now, but Neder and Eisley peeped in through the door.

"Ohoy, boss... we got the dinner..."

Warp had certain expectations, but this time he was positively surprised at least concerning the food.  Similar portions were made to him and Zarah. The delicious scent of roasted steaks and náurises (a vegetable that resembled turnips) along with all kinds of fruits made Warp smile. But when he was shown the dresses that were picked up for Zarah, he again sighed in frustration. "Can't you see this colour doesn't pass her at all! Do you really think that someone with flaming red hair and snow-white skin could wear a yellow dress with red spots? Are you insane? And what is the size again; I said 36, not 63!"

Now she opened her mouth to say her opinion: "Warp, I really don't need anything, I can get my own overalls and..."

But he stepped to her and bowed down to whisper right at her ear so that the bystanders would not hear: "Please, stay here, at least a little time. That's why I ordered them to put you a ready room. That's why I asked them to bring you something nice to wear. Just a little time...?"

She got her mouth dry as in a flash her mind was filled with the image of how he had kissed her two hours ago. "Warp... if..." she gulped "if you want, I'll stay. I'm actually on holiday, but came here to..."

"Hush." was his interrupting answer before he gave more orders to his men.

During the meal, Zarah told about her commissions and what she had been doing during the last six months. With wrinkled forehead, Warp listened to her telling about her depression and gazed at her very pitifully. She still did not mention what was the whole sorrow about; she was a bit too shy to confess what she had felt towards him during all this time. 

 When the dinner was finally finished, Warp suggested that they would go to visit the clothes stock. Zarah felt quite much confusion in the middle of all this. "Um, how large is this community actually? I mean that wasn't you talking about something flying across a cave to your assistants?"

"Oh, yeah, well, we're not flying, but taking a tunnel march. And I think I'll leave the presentation of the city for tomorrow. I promise it'll be quite exciting!" he winked to her.

"Would ya just tell me how many of you folks are here? I guess ya ain't gonna spam me with pretty cities if there's only a couple of mud huts squatting at the bottom of your cave?" she gave a merry laugh.

"No, Za. I'd say we're... half a million. Even more. Alone in this city. There are ten more, deep under the forbidding surface." Warp grinned.

Her jaw dropped to the floor and he chuckled to her amazement.

 It took half an hour to cruise zig-zag in the endless tunnels and stairs. Of course, there were lifts and assembly line-like vehicles with chairs that went along the long corridors. Most of the time Warp and Zarah sat in one of those and just discussed. Zarah's heart was completely molten as she observed her companion while it was his turn to speak. According to her, he was more handsome than ever and again, his gentleness towards her started to overwhelm her like there in the woods. But what was the most intoxicating, it was that after all this time she could stay with him, at least for a while. And in her mind she wondered that there seemed not to be another woman anywhere. Zarah knew that with an appearance like the one he had it would be a piece of meteoroid to steal the hearts of a dozen belles.  Nevertheless, there was no one.

 Warp's mind was one big merry-go-round, too. Zarah... his beautiful, tiny Zarah was suddenly with him. How was it even possible that she had popped out of somewhere like that, ended up in his arms on his most bad day in weeks? He had missed her so sorely, as well as she had, although she was too coy to confess that. He could not turn his vision from her at all, no; with his dark eyes, he kept ogling her all the way to the stocks. He had remembered her being somewhat taller, but now again the hearty smile lifted the corners of her mouth up as he keenly watched her outer appearance. Quasars, that size of those hands! Like a child's! That daintiness! How could she be so small and cute? She had only grown more fine-featured during her absence, he thought. Her hair was cut a bit, it was not that long as he remembered then how he had braided it... but that did not matter. The fabulous copper shine was there, contrasting with her deep-green eyes and skin white as milk. His Zarah...   

 Miss Uné was a small, orange-haired, rough-looking woman who kept the clothes stock, sew and designed models too. She was a former smuggler, but had lost her interest to criminality as the mafia had killed her parents and brother. She was happy to receive Zarah and search for proper clothes to her. There were not very many female residents around, usually only men sough their way to this sanctuary.

"Now, look at you, where have you got that kind of rags!" she complained Choi's outfit. Warp muttered something behind her. The women left him sit in the delivery room and took steps down to the stock premises.

"You should be wearing this!" S'Ŏr hiked up a black satin dress from a hanger. 

But Zarah's expression went uneasy. "Oh, no, I'd be rather wearing something less...  em... let's just say that I don't like open collars at all... uh... and the hems...", she hackled.

"I see", the dresser smiled. "Modesty is a good virtue. I guess you prefer these." She leaded her to another shelf. Zarah pulled out a pair of shine-dark-denim loose-hemmed jeans decorated with orange seams and extra pockets, then a couple of polo-necked tight, dark shirts. She found also a heavy steel belt to her jeans and a long, dark-grey leather jacket that reached almost her ankles.

 Of course, Warp had expected to see her in some kind of dazzy evening dress, but did not complain about these selections. The most important was that she was not wandering about in _his_ jeans. But now the night indicated to be quite late, so Zarah would have to head to bed. Eisley came to show her her room; it was arranged in the same wing as Warp's chambers. She indeed felt herself very fatigued when she put the warm felt cloth around her and placed her head to rest on the sinking pillow. Here, tens of metres under the ground, it was not warm, like there on the surface. But the night fell calmly and thanks to a thermal heater beside her bead, she did not freeze.

-------To be continued-------------


	4. The city under the ground

Next morning Warp took Zarah to see the city as he had promised. He had kept this carefully as a surprise, because he knew she hadn't ever seen anything equivalent. As they walked down a corridor to a semi-private ship platform, Warp took the time to eye over her again. She looked so baffled, so charming in her excitement... was his first thought. How much, how much he now wanted to capture her backwards and just kiss her so long that her knees would go weak? He felt his fingers itch, she walked there so puzzled in front of him, his waist just there waiting for to get an arm around it and then she'd be appropriate for to be clasped against his chest... A very slick grin appeared on his face. Or maybe, he could catch her and pin against the wall and just kiss her lips...

 But, too late. The flight deck door was opened by one of the residents of this wing that had just arrived. A three-legged, walking eyeball rumbled in and politely greeted Warp, even lifted his hat up to Zarah.

"Okayday, Za, are ya ready?" Warp asked and pointed to a roofless, streamlined hovercraft speeder that somehow resembled such ancient transportation vehicles as cars. They sat down, he gripped the controls and a hatch in the wall opened.

 Zarah's eyes sparkled with wild amazement when the view widened in front of them. It was truly a city under the ground, built into an immense cave. At the bottom, in the walls, even in the ceiling were buildings. Some of them resembled skyscrapers, the ones projecting from the walls balconies. Occasionally among them, in the middle of the structures were distinguished massive pipes that were a part of the complicated air-conditioning system. Between and above this all cruised ships, similar to Warp's, transporting aliens from building to building. Everything indicated to be very modern and hi-tech, no sign of misery or out-of-date was found anywhere.

 Its light the cavity got from saturnal lamp crystals that were attached to the ceiling. Also on every roof there were lights to illuminate the murky shadows. On the ground, in the middle of the buildings were of course some streets. Different life forms shoaled along them, doing trade, working in their open shops and practising their profession.

"This... this is like some dream world! And all these are reformed baddies?" Zarah gasped with awe in her expression.

"Ya! But, you gotta remember one thing. This all would not be possible without taxing laws. Once you get here, it's betta get used to those, unless ya don't want to spend your last days in the dungeons", Warp nodded a couple of times. For him, this all had been a quite a change, since he had always been rebellious, hated all kinds of regulations and it had literally been his hobby to find loopholes to get rid of responsibilities. But he knew that if he wanted to save his flame of life, he had no other chance but to take a firm hold of his vices and toss them away. There was no other place than Xaneda where he could imagine being safe, not in the whole galaxy. The eyes of Zurg were everywhere, as the Emperor had made it clear in his last curse.

"So... who is leading this all, if there are laws and everything?" she broke his thought bubble.

"Um, yeah... well, there are leaders and employees, but all of us are equal here. A group of Eldest keeps the supreme authority. They make it sure that everyone obeys the regulations. Speaking of rules... I unfortunately gotta tell ya, Za, that you're kinda stowaway in my li'l speeder... You're illegally in Xatagah. I've heard that folks can come here from outside, but they keep warning flags high so that they're recognised from certain signs who they are", Warp gave her an uneasy side-glance.

Zarah inhaled for some fright, but he calmed her down by telling that no one would arrest her as long as she'd be with him.

 Next Warp told about the richness that kept the cities wealthy along with the trade, working for outer companies and so on. There were vast occurrences of valuable minerals, oil, gas and other natural wealth hidden deep under the surface. And to make more Zarah flurried, he told that landanah, the stone whose mighty features the Galactic Alliance had just come to discover, had been used here to produce energy for thousands of years, at first in the use of the natives, now in the use of the communities. 

 While narrating this all, Warp was sunken in his thoughts a bit too much and did not notice a transportations speeder that was coming right ahead from the left.

"Look out!" Zarah exclaimed and grasped the control stave. She got the course of the ship to another direction and the collision was slightly avoided.

He wiped some sweat away from his forehead and sighed. "Thanks, Za, I..."

"I noticed that ya're driving the ship with your left hand all the time. You're not left-handed are ya? Since I remember ya used those metal fingers of your monster hand to do ev'ry attentive job", she wondered.

"Uh... it's... how'd I say it..." he exhaled long and clothed it into words: "...it's broken, I'm afraid..."

 They flied around for a while, landed to visit the ground level and met some of Warp's good friends. A variety of workshops, mining tunnels and private households was introduced to Zarah, who gawped everything in childlike consternation. How could this kind of place exist in the area of the Galactic Alliance and be so hidden? Did anyone of the higher quarters know about this recess? Zarah asked Warp about the spying and other sniffing that was done from outside. He explained that Zurg had for a while mistrusted that this planet would be desolated. The Emperor occasionally sent his snoopers here, but their sensitive noses were hearingly always bunged.

 Soon, Warp and Zarah went back as the time of lunch was ahead. He promised to give her another flight in the evening. After getting back to his flight deck, Warp took the topic of his robotic arm forth. He hadn't wanted to discuss about it among his acquaintances.

"Ya wanted to ask about my wreck?" he knocked the metal surface of it.

"What's the matter with it? Would ya move the fingers a little?" she asked her forehead wrinkled.

It seemed hard for Warp to do that. The metal fist did twist somewhat, but it squeaked and crackled like an old and ungreased joint hinge. She saw quickly that it was impossible to grip anything with it.

"Can ya turn it to blaster or something?"

"No", he grunted. "Seems that the whole thing is rusted or relevant. It started go on strike two months ago."

"Um... when ya were still on Planet Z, did the grubs to some kind of service to it?"

"Yep, that's righto. Opened it up monthly an' assured that I ain't got a screw loose."

"And no one has touched it since?" 

"Nope. Actually, no one here knows bioscience. They pout if anyone talks about organic tissue and bolts placed to the same category. Folks can build robots and fancy ships, but there ain' no anyone lending a hand to one poor arm. Guess it's hasta la vista, gotta learn to be a one-armed man", he sighed unhappily.

Zarah observed a bit the arm and lastly fingered the hand part of it. "I need some tools... a nano-multillator, picobiotic pliers, a flask for soldering bio-plastic tissue... um..." she counted with her fingers when Warp stopped her by putting his hand on her shoulder.

"What, YOU would repair my arm?" he stared at her with round eyes.

"Why not? I've read three years biotechnics along with my major studies. I dunno can I repair the blasters and sort, but at least I could try to get yar fingers work!" She looked at him as if the whole thing was a matter of course.

"W-Would ya really do that for me?" Without thinking more, he took her chin in his fingers and moved his face very close to her. She went quite nervous, but with unselfish tone answered: "Warp, don't ya remember what ya did to me? This is the smallest thing I can do for ya."

His hand shook when he held her chin and looked those sparkling, innocent green eyes. Her fresh lips were so close to his, could he...

A blushing attack struck her and she retreated. "Uh... do ya want... hmm... something extra into it... I mean, would the hand be more comfortable with five fingers or something?" she stammered and let her eyes wander along the floor.

Warp burst into laughter. According to him, the whole suggestion had been so comic. "Thanks, Za! Five fingers with two joints. I'll ask the blacksmith and a couple of AI-side guys get the loose hand part ready. The problem namely ain't with the attachments; it's the insides that are jammed."


	5. The case of one broken robotic arm

 In the early morning, Zarah went to knock Eisley's shoulder so that he could wake up Warp. Also she asked him to point her to a room where she could do the reparations and possible surgeries. Her 'patient' was amazed how eager she was to help him with his arm. She had everything with her in the early hours, the tools and even the detached hand part. A fifth finger had appeared into it and the last ones were also renewed.

"Don't ya wanna eat breakfast before the job, Za?" Warp laughed when he saw her straight bolting into the empty room. He had barely had the time to button his trousers and find a shirt for to appear in front of her in a proper outfit.

"Uh... I guess we gotta eat, this may take quite long. And I hope the chef will give me at least a candy bar to put in my pocket, I know my stomach will croak like a toad in few hours", she put it into words.

 After half an hour, she was in total action. Warp was put to sit on a comfortable chair, whose right armrest was widened to a table. Zarah sat on a low chair so that the work ground was to the level of her chest. On a dumbwaiter, she had her tools, some lubricants, purifiers, antiseptics, hygienic tissues and so on. With a big wrench, she opened his arm and sighed deep as she peeked in to the machinery.

"Ye, toxic diodes, what a jungle of bioscience..."

"Well that's what the folks here said, too, when they checked out the inners. Zarah, you don't have to do this, if..." he began.

"No, no, I'll fix it, just sit and relax!" she cut him rapidly short. She was actually facing a messy nodus, but did not want to show it to him. She was so much in debt for him that this was the most minor thing she could do for him to give back at least something. She placed large microscope goggles over her eyes and took the labour into her hands.

 Hours went by. She had unfastened a pile of circuit cards and dug to the biotic parts of the arm. The reason for the disability was very complex. The crystal, from which the flamethrower, plasma riffle and the rest of the contraptions got their energy, was rundown. Also, some of the circuits that were compulsory for the functions of the weapon parts, were burnt through. She could do nothing to them, only took them out and added to the heap of trash.

"I'm afraid that ya won't be able to use your flints any more..." she complained.

"That's just the same, it ain't pretty nice to think that a part of you is a weapon, anyways. Guess I'm not the guy any more that enjoyed blasting ships and folks out if his way. How much I wish that I'd have a proper arm of flesh and blood instead of that rubbish", he murmured.

Just then and there Zarah accidentally snapped one of his large blood vessels broken. She was namely working with the layer that connected his vessels and sinews to the artificial parts. Warp exclaimed for pain and she got into panic.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Warp, I'm sorry..." she stammered and caught the bleeding tissue with tweezers. In a breeze, she had attached the vessel back to its place and soldered a bio-plastic insulant over it.

"Heh... there ain' no anesthetics around? I mean, if you're gonna amputate the whole arm", he grimaced.

"I'm sorry... I can't use such things to this, it..." she panted in terror as she though that she had hurt him very badly.

"Za, relax. I was just kidding", he cleared up.

 The work went on smoother. She got some sense into the combination of the organic tissue and metal parts. The studied information from the times of her polytechnics courses came lively into her mind and she did the rest of the job without mishap. It was very late when she finally got to set the loose hand part to its slot.

"Now... easy... the last circuit..." she bit her lips and soldered the remaining connections. Then the molten metal was rapidly solidified with the flash-drier. With a nervous expression, she uttered: "Okay, try to twist and shift the hand part."

Warp did what was requested and soon bent his fully functioning fingers with a happy smile. He caught a tool from the dumbwaiter and it stayed there in his hold. "It's perfecto, Za, unbe-LIEV-able!" he laughed.

"Now... I hope the thing continues to work even next week, oh twisting torques, what a job!" Zarah sighed fatigued. She closed the hatch, twitched the large wrench and finally flopped down to let her upper body rest on this huge metal body part. "Uf... now ya got five fingers, longer ones, at least ya can move them..." She was completely worn out and inadvertently laid quite long on her position.

Warp leaned down to her and suddenly she noticed that he had taken her hand into his own. Brownish-black mess covered her hands almost until wrists, because of the blood and machinery lubricant. And for her horror he had started to rub her fingers. "Uh, no, no... stop that..." she noted anxious. 

"Stop what, babe...?" he whispered. Then he took her hand up and gave some kisses above the wrist where was no mess. His eyes twinkled slyly.

She got more nervous after hearing how she had been suddenly called and what he did to her. Troubled she uttered: "M-My hands are dirty!"

He took his face very close to her and whispered at her ear: "My hand is dirty, too. From all the crimes I've done..." Carelessly he wiped the grimy hand to his shirt and was next cuddling her cheek with his fingertips. He had not had a single chance to caress her after she was brought in as a captive. This moment was not definitely to be missed. Finally they were alone and even, enormous tenderness filled his heart as he thought that she had so kindly given him his right hand back.  Now he was quite amazed to notice that she instantly closed her eyes and seemed to turn quite feeble when he gave her a couple of tokens of affections. So, encouraged by this, he moved his fingers to her neck and began to fondle her other cheek with his thick lips. Unexpectedly his fingers sensed something cold and hard just a little over her collar. He picked the object up and comprehended it being the old steel necklace he had once given her. It was something excessively rough and heavy for her to wear, like a chain around her neck. But there it just seemed to be as she would always wear it.

He eyed it for a while, holding it in his hand and fiddling about the large flat pendant that was attached to it. This bauble never had had any money value; it had been some kind of gift from somebody he did not remember any more. However, seeing it now around her neck after all this time, got his expression to a dolorous smile. "I see that you haven't... forgotten me..." was the quiet utterance almost against her lips.

She opened her eyes that had been closed an eternity and took a look at him. "How could I have? You saved my life. How could I forget something like that?" Then she cast her eyes on the spangle. "This has been my only memory of you. I know it's not actually meant for a small woman like me and it always has made my shirt front look quite odd, but..."

Warp did not need more explanations. He was now dead sure about how she felt, if she had slavishly dragged this kind of thing from day to another. He stood up, sat on the floor and grabbed her tight to sit on his lap. His feelings were so fervent that he kissed her almost the same way he had done in front of the guards. Only now, he could kiss her as long as he wanted, since there was no one else around. He felt her warm lithe body in his arms, sensing her heart beat getting faster and the tremble, which was caused by him, shaking her whole being. He had pinned her arms against her sides so that she was not able to escape. So, frail she sat in his clutch as he fierily expressed his feelings. 

 After an undetermined span she woke up to feel that Warp was caressing her cheek with his lips again. With his flesh hand, he kept cuddling her neck and occasionally stroked her hair. "I see ya like this, don't you...?" a voice asked softly at her ear. "Ya like it that I keep you in my arms... my babe."

She was so out of her breath that was not able to answer anything.

"I fell in love with ya, then, do you remember...?" the ardent voice continued "And what the feeling is now, it has grown to the sizes of a dinosaur. If ya wonna hear it, again, so I say that I love you, babe."

She inhaled weakly as he fondled her lower lip with his thumb, letting his lips slide along the side of her jaw. 

"Ya feel the same, do ya? I would expect a reaction a bit different from this, if ya wan'ed to reject me." This time he kissed her lips for conclusion. "There... ya could even use another good kiss, maybe a hundred, don't you think...?" he grinned slyly to the fainting girl.

She attempted to form the words that cruised in her mind, but it was hard for her to get them out. She got so much strength, yet, that she could make him read from her mouth the sentence 'I love you'. 

The cunning expression on his face faded and a gentle smile rose instead. He pressed her tight against his chest and put her little head to rest under his chin. "Deep in my heart I knew it... if only I wouldn't have to let you go... I'm so glad that you're finally here with me, though, maybe just a little time, but to know that I haven't waited for all this time in vain... I once was on Capital Planet, stood on the cliff above your window and saw how you put the curtains over it... I wished then that I could some day meet you again."

A small sniffle came from under his arm. "Why... didn't you come to me, then? I would have let you in."

"I'm so sorry... it would have been too dangerous, then. I was still fleeing, bounty hunters of Zurg after me..."

"From day to day... I had nothing but my depression with me, I've loved you all the time you've been gone..." the sniffing increased.

Warp raised his regard from her and pain shadowed his face. He knew she would go away, again and lastly, she was actually a prohibited person in the community for the moment. It was not easy for outsiders to come to visit Xatagah, since the security was very strict and the laws even stricter. With his heavy heart, he could not think the situation to fall again to that point that he would have to be ages separated from her, maybe not be ever allowed to hold her in his arms again... No, he had to do something. He knew some of the other community members had the permission to bring people from outside, then why not he?

"Za, please, don't cry, we'll figure something out so that we don't have to lose each other like that any more. We'll figure something out." he soothed her with a warm voice. 

"How?"

"We'll go to talk to the Council of the Eldest tomorrow. They decide the things here and I'm sure they can bring a solution to us, so that our love will remain like it is now..." 

  They winced as a knock was heard from the door. Warp lifted Zarah up from his knees and rapidly wiped her cheeks dry.

Neder put his head from the gap of the door and blurted: "Boss, the tech stock keeper Kuikelo wants to talk to you."

---The tech stock---

 "Now, would ya tell me, what's the problem?" Warp eyed bored some matrix on a control screen.

Kuikelo leaned over the table and pointed at the screen with his finger. "This is the chart of the functions of the nanocapacitors. Can't you see, the indications are too high! They have transported us wrong kinds of parts from Kar-Sina."

"Twist-jumping quasars! You're right! The omicron-ray radars will never work, they'll blow up if we use these to charge the circuits!" Warp exclaimed.

"And then there's more. Your boss is wondering why we don't send him the ready machines... well, there ain't no ready machines, 'cause the parts are wrong."

"Oh, quarks... do I need to visit his office again for to explain the circumstances? It's not our fault if we get Monday devices..." the blue alien sighed. "Have you checked out that there is no box of model AT-AT-222 left?"

"I have. And there's not a single one lurking in the shadows."

"Why do I always have to be there face to face with him, if there's a problem..." Warp cursed. "I'd have now som'thing a lot more interesting going on than to visit Trade World..."

"You know your boss does not trust into the comm. devices and doesn't allow dogsbodies", Kuikelo commented.

"Right... ya send him an encrypted message and tell him I'll be there on Friday, local time." 

....to be continued...


	6. The union of two strangers

6. The Union of Two Half-Srangers

  


Next day, after the lunch Warp strengthened himself up and took Zarah to see the Eldest. They had their council in the centre of the city and ruled basically all the functions of the community. Warp had to wait with her for a while in a hall. The meeting chamber of the leaders was strictly guarded. The entrance was still behind one single, heavy velvet curtain. Warp kept wiping dust away from his suit, which was his most official one he owned. In front of these men, their wizened heads, everyone had to be polished with manners.

"You have permission to come in, community member Darkmatter", a servant alien slightly opened the curtain.

Warp noticed that Zarah hesitated and took her hand to encourage her: "Come on, Za. We'll figure something out. They won't put you in jail, I promise it."

"But I'm not legal here..." she whispered.

"I'll explain the situation."

When they stepped in, she nuzzled even more to his side for confusion and fear. They entered a colossal cylinder-shaped parlor. On large and sinking divans, along the wall, sat seven aged and wizened men with austere faces. A red lamp crystal cast its light from the ceiling, making everything look very majestic. On the floor were a couple of braziers where incense was burnt. Massive tapestries covered the rounded walls, which rose up to the highnesses. The decorations of this handiwork seemed to describe some kind of legends with their pictography. The men of council cast all their eyes upon Zarah and wrinkled their foreheads. 

"Don't be afraid. They may be a bit tuff, but they're great and wise men", Warp lastly whispered to her.

"Speak, community member Darkmatter", one of the Eldest commanded. 

Warp clarified his matter very respectfully, detailing the situation of Zarah and him.

The male sitting in the middle of the other six let his hollow voice echo: "Step forth, young lady."

She tapped to the centre floor very maidenly.

"Who are you? And why are you here?"

She was now more nervous because the same things were asked again, the things she thought Warp had narrated already. "I... I am Choi Zarah G'Deneb. I was doing mineral tests on the surface but I got in the middle of a sand storm. I entered a cave to find shelter, but then I was captured and brought here."

"And then you met community member Darkmatter?" a third voice asked.

"Yes, your honour."

"How him know you do?" a very small, green, big-eared Eldest inquired with a peculiar accent.

"Warp Darkmatter once saved my life, by taking me away from Zurg."

"She her is, once about we told were, the maiden after landanah", the green one continued speaking to the alien beside him.

"You're the one that brought the balance to community member Darkmatter?" the spoken murmured.

She did not quite understand what was this question all about, but timidly agreed.

After this, the most middle one exclaimed: "You're free to meet each other after going through _xaret¨a_. You're then given the permission to visit the community outside, young lady."

 Now Warp turned quite awkward and stepped beside Choi. "Honourable Ooban, I apologise for interrupting, but there is not another way?"

Zarah looked at him twittery. She had no more any clue what was the topic about.

"You know the laws, community member Darkmatter. They're very strict and there's no way of evading them. This young woman is here without authority and under normal circumstances would never be allowed to leave the city. However, if you wish her for a free entrance here, you must enter the ceremony. You know there is nothing religious, nothing political in it, nothing that could disturb your conscience. It shall be just the simple registration. Arranging it is very rare here, since women do not much populate the cities of Xaneda. With relatives the regulations are different, but since she is not your family, xaret¨a is then the common means."

Warp sighed jumpy but continued: "Your honour, I'd wish to say a couple of words to my companion."

"You have the permission."

Now the former henchman of Zurg bowed down to Zarah, who understood nothing. Her big, green eyes were all wide open and she primarily looked like a little girl her first day at school.

"Z-Zarah...? Do ya want this?" he looked straight into her eyes. She could sense the troublesome thoughts that racked his mind.

"W-What is xaret¨a?" was the answer.

He cupped his large palm on her cheek and put his metal arm around her waist. "Za... this is the only way. You know how I feel. But..." he sighed unhappily "...I'm still an outlaw, nothing can dispel that. But I've tried to become a reformed character, otherwise I'd not be allowed to live here. I-I want this so badly, but you..."

"Warp, tell me what is it? What is xaret¨a?" she kept repeating in a flapping accent.

"Za, I wish ya'd give me this favour... Ya know how much I love you." He now put his lips nearly on hers. 

Her breaths turned deep and rapid. "W-Warp, I l-love you too, but WHAT is xaret¨a?"

He gulped and finally got it said. "It's... a sort of... um... matrimonial ceremony. It's not the kind of they have like on Capital Planet. We will be registered as a couple to the community archives. Because of the safety of this place, there seems to be no other way. Everybody who comes from outside must have some kind of very reliable relationship with the one he or she wants to meet..."

She gasped and almost lost her balance. Warp saw that a couple of teardrops appeared in her eyes. "You... m-mean that w-we..." she stuttered.

"Please?" he looked at her with a pleading regard.

She burst into sobs now. He clasped her carefully against his chest and waited for the response. It was quite an upheaval for her that someone after all her desolateness suddenly suggested something like this to her, even under this kind of circumstances. Warp felt very strange, too, but so was his life, it all was commenced from a clear table a couple of months ago, he had had to dispossess the old being and adapt a life far something else. What was more; he and she were actually still half-strangers for each other. The only connection was the strong love and her debt of gratitude to him.

 As she stood there in his hold, he was to hear some very timid and stammering pieces of words of her at his ear. He closed his eyes and exhaled deep, he would have yelled for joy if he wasn't in the middle of the Eldest. Therefore, with a jubilant smile on his face, he stood up from her and declared to the aged: "Honourable Ooban, she agrees to enter xaret¨a. I am saying my apologises for her emotion, she is not able to pronounce it by herself, now."

 Immediately one of the Eldest boomed a small gong. From behind the door curtain came two men.

"We are going to spend xaret¨a today. Take this young lady to Mrs. Adlene for the preparations. Then you take community member Darkmatter to Mister Enigme's. We'll start the registration ceremony right after the sunset."

Zarah was completely anxious and was not to be able to stand on her feet. But Warp kneeled again in front of her and comforted: "It's all right, they're fast in their decisions, but you go on now... my sweet babe Za... Mrs. Adlene and her assistants will dress you."

 Warp flopped down to the entrance hall couch to wait for his escort. He was nothing but one big smile. He let his regard wander in the ceiling, where some legendary ancient characters of Xaneda were painted. Behind the curtain reached a voice of one of the Eldest that spoke to an internal communication device. In his words were told about a splendid feast that would be arranged tonight, where every citizen was welcome. And Warp, HE was the main issue with his long-lost love. No better way to give a hooray to his egoism.

 With reeling steps, Zarah walked along a corridor. Her mind was one big rollercoaster. What had she tangled up with? A dull expedition trip to Xaneda had turned to... she could not even find an expression to it. In some hours, she would sweep into matrimony on a strange planet, with the second most-wanted skunk of the galaxy? But she knew there was the chance, the careless criminal did not exist any more, only there was a man that had risked his life for her. Still, thinking of this and that made her heart clear not at all.

 At the end of a one mile-length tunnel a mid-aged, maternal woman achieved Zarah with a hearty smile. She had been informed about the preparations via the internal comm. device. At first, she hugged Zarah very warmly.

"Oh, dear, look at you, such a pretty little girl. It's an honour to prepare the bride of Mr. Darkmatter."

"You... you know him?" she shyly asked.

"Sure, my dear! He's a very known person over here. You'll be having many guests at your registration ceremony tonight!"

Zarah was even more baffled. "Uh... what do you mean, madam?"

"Oh, dear, don't you know what's waiting for you? Xaret¨a, it's something very exceptional, here. It will be kept in the Main Arena; it will gather many, many spectators! Now, let's go to make you pleasurable for your future owner."

Zarah's jaw drooped open once again because of the last word of this old woman. "O-owner? You don't mean that..." she supplicated with her eyes not to hear what she feared.

But Mrs. Adlene just gave a merry laugh and explained: "Oh, sure, Mr. Darkmatter owns you now. I hope you were told that this is not a marital union they have out there, but you become the property of your master. Some may say this is a bit ancient, but it's just for your best." Next she took somewhat a more severe expression because she noticed the anxiety on the bride's face. "I see that you did not know this technical detail. But do not be afraid, he'll take good care of you."

 Now it was clear for Zarah why Warp had been so awkward. Easy for him, but she would become his submissive? He had possibly on purpose left that 'technical detail' untold. What the craters was going to happen to her? Concerning that her savvy had got quite blurry. Moreover, she did not dare to ask any more about the ceremony because she felt completely stupid. All she could wait for was... many visitors? She had expected something very modest and private because of the short schedule. An Eldest maybe could read a couple of words from a statute book, but...?

 At first Choi was leaded to a sauna, then given a hot bath with incense and herbs leached to the water. Mrs. Adlene's assistants, her two daughters, washed Zarah's hair and salved it with many expensive and fragrant balsams. In addition, her face, shoulders and neck were spread with similar creams before a light make-up. She was dressed completely differently, every part of her boyish garments was put aside. The cloth that was put on her was actually one big bundle of textile. It was so light, soft and flimsy that it took so much to make a proper outfit. This snowy linen-type gown was stitched up with dozens of tiny buckles and fastenings. Its long hems flowed a metre after her on the floor. As the whole system was on her, it was gathered to follow the curves of her body with a large, metal corset that went over her hips and ribs. Round her neck was hung a complex and wide necklace. The plates of it that reached her shoulders were decorated with stone inlays: onyx, sapphires, jades and some unique semiprecious stones mined on Xaneda. Her head was beautified with an Aztec-type diadem, which had similar ornamentations as the neck plaques. Her long hair was left open and combed to flow along her back, still made tidy with a couple extra portions of herb balsam. Lastly, on her feet was put sandals. Her arms were left completely bare.

 She was not to know herself when she was brought in front of a mirror. In her fabulous dress, she looked like a daughter of a Pharaoh, speaking of the ancient cultures of a forgotten planet called Tellus. She had seen dozens of civil marriages arranged in Star Command HQ, but this seemed to be far away from them. She could have not even imagined seeing a dress this exotic with such heavy jewels, not to mention wearing one. Her brains swirled, what was there to expect next?

---The time of the sunset---

 Zarah had quite numerous escorts when the travel to the Main Arena began. Mrs. Adlene kept hugging her and chirping about the event when the fast underground speeder train whizzed them towards the aim. After this, she was leaded to a huge door, which was told to be a private side entrance to the mentioned place.

"Now, dear, we try to find our seats if there's something left. Helmì and Aaltó, my dear daughters, bring you to your future owner. Good luck!" She gave a motherly peck on her cheek and pulled the door open.

 Because of the next view, Zarah was to faint. The 'arena' was a colossal amphitheatre, quarried into the bedrock. The auditorium that circulated the walls, were supercharged with spectators. They were over one hundred thousand. Every citizen of the community was welcome for this happening, and so the seats had been filled up already quite early.

 Through her blackening vision she saw Warp standing right in front of her, at the end of a 'road' that was an electric blue carpet rolled to the plain middle part of the hall. Another carpet crossed this one and leaded a long way towards the back wall. The Eldest were sitting at the end of it.

 Darkmatter was a very mighty sight. He was dressed into a long, black robe, which had large, crimson wristbands and another detail of the same colour: a silk fabric that was tied around his hips. The gown was so long that it covered his feet. A wide, glossy-black cloak was attached to his shoulders with two, discus-shaped metal buckles. He resembled Zurg a bit in his extraordinary dressing.

 With an exultant smile, his both arms extended wide, he received her. She felt so weak, so small and fragile now beside this former miscreant. In addition, the helter-skelter sentiments of hers thinking him as his master were of course there to further that all. She had been never coyer. The shyness made her glance nervously around and got her chin tremble. He prompted her with some lulling words, but they did not help much when she took him by arm and gradually moved on towards the Eldest with him. 

 Now the whole auditorium was silent. The spectators embarrassingly closely inspected their every gait. Some of the aliens in the front row smiled a bit comically to the height difference of the xaret¨a pair. They announced that the couple surely was charming, but when almost half a metre was the distance between their crowns, there was a certain funny atmosphere. Warp beside his lady noticed her nervous hesitating and gently supported her going. Well, Zarah felt as if she had tried to ski in a swamp, every stride was tacky and infirm.

 The ceremony itself consisted of the speech of everyone of the Eldest. One told about the history of Xaneda, another one the saga of the underground cities, third one summarised the laws and fourth one told the audience the story of community member Darkmatter. Every word was heard multiplied through efficient loudspeakers above the amphitheatre. When the fifth leader spoke, Warp and Zarah were asked to kneel to the floor. The discourse was an intense report about why and what xaret¨a was, and what it meant to be registered as a couple. 

The green, short and wise alien declared: "As you united now will be, unconditional laws there to bind you are. Darkmatter, loving your lady as your own body you ought to be. He who his wife loves, himself loves. On the other hand, you, lady, you deep respect for your man should have. You, Darkmatter, with care and gentle devotion you her treat ought to, the more fragile form of life. And, you stay only for each other shall, in Xaneda a great crime fornication is. The penalty crude shall be, if a man his woman deceives or maltreats.  Or on the contrary. And you, who from outside come, so the laws there for you too are, when you in the future Xaneda visit shall." The speaker took a pause and leaned on his cane.

"Xaret¨a a compact union is, the seals not there are to be broken like outside there happens it, so often, so often.  A man his bride desecrates and opposite. This not the way in Xaneda is! Xaret¨a in decency kept must be! With patience you two, in the future, your mortal and human weaknesses bear and to each other forgiving be. No fortune there for selfishness is!"

 Zarah felt her knees getting inert as she saw the sixth one standing up and taking a large velvet pillow from a young boy. There lied a pile of heavy-looking jewellery made from platinum. Detailed gravure and inlays decorated every one of them.

"Now, young lady, extend your hands", an old voice commanded.

She put her quivering arms in front of the man. He locked two, hefty bracelets around her wrists -or more strictly they reached the middle section of her arm from elbow to wrist- and laced two, long, pipe-looking rings to both her middle fingers.

"These signs of xaret¨a you shall carry from day to day, for to be known for whom you do belong to. Outside, you may be called G'Deneb, but here, in Xaneda, you will be known as Darkmatter for this day on." Then Ooban, the speaker, turned to Warp. The left hand of the kneeled man became also added with similar goods as hers, only much bigger in size.

"And you, community member Darkmatter, you take now good care of her for this time on, love her like yourself as you were told."

Warp gave a somewhat cunning side glance at Zarah and flashed his big teeth. She got shivers going along her back because of that regard. 

The seventh Eldest spoke only very shortly. "Citizens of the Community of Xatagah, may we all celebrate for the happiness of community member Darkmatter and his lady, who have now entered the gates of xaret¨a! You, son of man, take your lady and do as you wish. She's yours now."

 Warp didn't need more boost. A fire had ignited in his eyes and he grapped her tight to his embrace, then kissed her lips harder than ever. Lastly, he gave her a couple of mild kisses on her neck. In his flaming passion, he did not care about the spectators.

 As he began to carry her away from the arena, the whole crowd whooped and hollered. After hours of celebrating, eating of the feasts, dancing and receiving congratulations, the city gradually quieted down in the small hours. Warp leaded his shy beloved into his chambers with him. Above, on the surface, Xaneda was serene, the forbidding desert hiding all the beauty of one romance that had bloomed into its greatest flowers.

---------------

 Next morning Warp woke up in his wide bed earlier than his legal mate of xaret¨a. She slept calmly on his chest. He turned a bit over and took her completely into his enfold. With pride and gentleness, he watched her delicate features.

"Half a year... I kept roaming in uncertainty... would she ever remember me, would we ever meet again. And now, one morning, I wake up, find her in my arms, united with me..." He sighed and let the image of the once experienced forest adventure roll in his mind. How she had been so afraid of him at first, but then burst to bitter tears when he was forced to leave her... so she had suddenly became fond of him, unexpectedly... He saddened quite a bit because of the association; it brought her words into his mind. Those misery words had told about her longing for him and the oppressing solitude. How could he have known that she had felt exactly the same during all this time?

 As he went on thinking more, it was actually quite upheaving for him to see himself as a man committed to someone. The rebellious and indifferent Warp now in this situation? But he did not regret it a bit, no. His expression remained serious as he pondered about the girl in the shelter of his arms. "How did it happen that she is now suddenly mine? I turned away from Zurg, wandered in agony for a while and now I'm granted with her? This... so fragile and innocent..." he suddenly felt stomach-turning disgust when thinking about his past, what he had done to himself. "... my goodness, till this day, she was untouched..."

 Although the past was there to haunt him, he had to direct his mental activity to somewhere else for to brighten up himself. "Don't ya matter about that any more, big guy, she's yours. Completely yours." He wiped the gloomy dreams away and put his hand on her crown to stroke her hair. "Now not even the community can hinder my love to her. Heh, heh, betta impress her..."

She yawned lightly under his arm and first met his dark eyes. In her slumber she had been on Capital Planet and now the reality encountered her quite oddly. A quiver went along her spine and she nuzzled more towards him.

"Warp..." she whispered in a bashful voice. No more words were found to express her emotions. All her apprehensions of the subjection in this union were gone with the wind. 

He had quite smug and shrewd smile as he then stood up. "Hmm, ya DID impress her, well done, blue boy!" 

 Sniffing and blubbering Eisley and Neder brought the breakfast to Warp and Zarah to the main room. 

"We're so happy for ya, boss!" the big and sturdy black man sobbed.

"Aww, b-boss, w-we wish ya all da luck..." Neder flooded tears like Niagara.

"A-and we're sorry w-we brought ya in so tuffly, M-Madam Darkmatter..." Eisley snuffed and wiped his nose.

Warp could not hold his chuckles but slammed: "Okey-dokey, don't howl like li'l rascals who have lost their balloons! Thanks for ya, see ya later today."

 When the guards had streamed away, Warp took forth the less pleasant topic about visiting Trade World.

"Za, gotta tell ya som'thing. I'm forced to go to Trade World tomorrow. It's about my work. The manager of the security device department P'Osankka is complaining about that the scan radars ain't been manufactured in the schedule. But it is not our fault; we've been given wrong kinds of nanocapacitors and picocircuits."

Zarah's expression turned quite serious. "But Warp, isn't that riskin' yar safety? Trade World's the most slimy place concerning all kinds of rotters. Ya should know 'cause you've been lurking there."

"I know, Za, but I've been there a dozen times since I started this job. The enterprise I'm working for has its office there. I just wear some disguise an' that's it", he grinned.

"But what's your responsibility there?  Can't ya send someone else instead? I'm just not very keen on this thing. Bounty hunters of Zurg ain't necessarily stupid fellas."

Warp burst into guffaws. "Yea, like that Baba Fat, who was so quasary massive that got stuck in one doorway. Then a couple of space rangers had to cut him off with a blowpipe before he was arrested!"

The wrinkles on her forehead remained. "That ain't a think to laugh with. They're after you to kill ya, unlike the space rangers. Those only want to get ya to the court."

He reached to take her hand over the table. "Nah, cut it out. It'll be just fine, like has been this far. Come with me, Za, so ya don't have to be alone here."

"How are ya gonna disguise yourself? You happen to look pretty original, ya kow that", she fingered her chin. "No one's interested in me, but ya gotta get then good means to walk incognito."

Warp chuckled and popped into another room for a while. "I rely on the classic fashion stylee: this is the most common outfit seen on Trade World, precisely no one can figure out anything." He put a cowboy-type hat, a long black coat and mirror sunglasses on the table. "...and, to get some colour to my face, I'll use this!" He put a tube of some ointment in front of her nose. "Grow a beard overnight! A couple of strokes of this and I guess even ya, Za, could play Captain Hook tomorrow morning!"

She burst into giggles and gave in.

  



	7. Trapped!

7. Trapped!

  


Next morning, after Zarah had for a half an hour cackled at Warp's black full-beard, they took early a lift to the main flight deck of Xatagah. It was filled with large, star cruiser-type transportation ships and private vehicles of the community members. For her amazement, her own speeder was brought also here, parked beside a larger vehicle that indicated to be Warp's.

"How can this be here?" she uttered.

"The guards tend not to let abandoned ships lounge around. They hinder them to flit away..."

"Well that's the question that has pretty much caused me puzzlement. How is it possible that ya take flights outside an' come back just like that? This is in the area of the Galactic Alliance, a Space Ranger Control in the other moon... how can ya stay so invisible? Don't tell me ya have invited a way to play The Hollow Man?" she looked at him her head atilt.

"Ya dunno how right ya are! Along with the radar-cheater, the ships all have a shield generator that produces an energy coat, which interferes the reflecting light so that it cannot be seen from outside! It's just based on that trick that the wave-motion of the electromagnetic vibration will be turned upside down... flop, the interference cuts the scenes away! That's the groove, babe!"

"Cool! I guess this is some heritance from the race that once lived here?"

"Yep, Za..." 

----Trade World----

 Very late, last night, the couple had arrived from Xaneda and taken a hotel room for to rest. It had been way too late to step in the office of P'Osankka. However, now Warp and Zarah both sat in massive armchairs in front of a large desk. The boss, a descendant of the native Xanedians, was a mid-aged, grey-skinned, very bony man with white thick hair, wide forehead and sharp eyes. He was on a very cheerful mood, though, as the brain-racking problem of the nanocapacitors and delayed device transportation from Xatagah was now cleared up. He had changed the topic to far something else as Warp was quite a good friend to him.

"I see from those bracelets, young lady, that you have gone through something quite singular, lately." P'Osankka warmly noted to Zarah.

She got some redness to her cheeks as Warp took her hand. "When I was here last time two weeks ago, I could hardly have imagined suddenly entering xaret¨a! Well, peculiar things happen. Blop, she falls out of the sky and becomes mine."

"Well, any plans for the future?" the boss smiled.

"At least I got a place to spend the rest of my holiday." Zarah giggled. "Don't have to think about burning my skin on Mahombus 6, 'cause I can nicely relax in murky caves!"

"I'm giving you my best congratulations, community member Darkmatter, it's exceptional that someone takes such a big liability as this union. You know it's not the same what they call 'marriage' out there." P'Osankka shook Warp's extended hand.

"I know", he said with wrinkled brows. "I know what my responsibility as her owner is. If I'd be that stupid that I'd whack her, I'd sit the rest of my days in jail because of that, unless I'd train myself to some cratery Houndini."

P'Osankka looked at him with an impressed expression. "You are definitely a changed man, Darkmatter. I guess I couldn't have heard those words from your mouth a year ago!"

"My past is gone and I don't want to think what I was", he looked at the floor with shadows in his eyes.

---------

"Righto... now where we gonna go? Home?" Warp took Zarah under his arm when they left the office.

She nuzzled to him and purred: "I'll go anywhere with my big, strong hero."

"See, Za? Nothin' has happened, no jackals of Mr. Cheerful Kublai Khan around" he grinned down to her.

She got more severe. "I don't want ya to play with that thing. This place ain't safe at all. I guess we better go home."

"Okey-dokey, babe, but we're now gonna go to take some snack in a restaurant? I think I heard a li'l croak from your tummy... is there a puny frog livin' there or are ya hungry... what?" he cuddled her under her chin and got her titter.

----------

 Two sharp eyes inspected Zarah and Warp among the swarming crowd of a business street. The couple walked there enjoying each other's company, heading to a luxurious restaurant. A shabby, pudgy man slowly waddled past a couple of aliens and left himself behind a corner to spy them more. This skunk was Rentwhistle Swack. Long time he had been a successful con artist, but businesses had now gone a bit upsy-daisy. Because of some serious mistakes he had done, he had got the most dreadful mafia of Trade World after him, for a short while ago. He had used all his this far gained property for to pay himself out of his trouble. For his luck, he had money. If not, he would be now dead as a doornail. Then, four months ago, he had found a new master to work for. Money was the snare, of course, but this new employer had the possibility to pay anything. Now, with a complacent smile on his face, Rentwhistle opened his wrist communicator and hissed to his comm. link.

"Boss, this is Swack, from Trade World, ya hear me? I think I got som'thing suspicious over here. I wuz walking home and passed this one guy... looking _too much_ like the one we're after."

"Explain." was the answer.

"Tall, very sturdy, dressed in a long coat, a hat on, mirror sunglasses... guess I distinguished him having a full-beard, but still... wait, I'm walking forwards. And... he's got a gal with him. I'd say some teenager, can be elder."

"A woman? What does she look like?" the answering voice became inspired.

"A real shortie, that's why I ain't saying it's an adult. Has red, very long hair... and kinda strange he's holding hands with her... if she's a..." The miscreant was interrupted by a yell.

"Go after them, now! You clutch the man's sleeve and physically be assured he's the one. Once you see the arm, you cannot make mistakes about who's who. And remember what is the price if you proof me _something crucial_! Jim-kraken-dandy!"

"So, what's the place we're gonna go?" Zarah asked Warp while walking forwards.

He raised his gloved left hand and pointed at a jubilant building in the end of the block. "It's one bad gambling place, but we're gonna get there delicious stuffing for our stomachs."

She went somewhat nervous. "Are ya sure it's safe? If someone knows ya there?"

"Bah. It's fine, now, babe, let's go!" he spurred her and gripped the handle of the restaurant door. Behind them, Swack cursed. He would have to wait outside until the lovebirds would end their meal, before getting to be sure about _one crucial thing._

 Zurg had been amusing himself with holo-game for a few hours. One of the brain pods had programmed it for him, just to be able to kill some time. The latest weeks had been very boring, no new Zurg-o-zealous Z-rays had been invented nor new evil imperial plans had been intrigued. So, now he had eagerly steered a plump, happy-faced hopping zucchini that had to collect stars and flowers to get to the next level. In wicked merriment, he had been twisting and turning his joystick when a call from Trade World had come.

 "This is IT. It must be _he_! And if it is not, there's nothing to loose if Swack rips a coat of someone pathetic mortal And that woman... there is surely no other one in the near universe that satisfies the examiners of _that_ outer appearance. In the best case, I'll catch two mice with the same mousetrap...", he walked nervously a circle in his throne after closing the comm. link. "As soon as it's sure, I'll order 20 hornets ready and an attack to Trade World shall begin. I leave no loopholes. Evil and super-intelligent Emperors do not take anything for granted. They have a plan. They always have a plan. And I'm the one that is never without a plan!"

 He went back to continue his game. But an angry laser flame was there soon to grill a couple of grubs. "Why did no one tell me that I can't save the game? I had just collected 99 dandelions to get to the bonus level and now I have to start it all over again? Quasars!" 

 Swack had been leaning against a wall, pretending to be a dull loafer, for an hour, now. He guarded the door of the restaurant some ten metres distance. When Zarah's delighted figure stepped out of the gateway, he winced and bolted like a weasel in the middle of the crowd despite his fat appearance, towards his aim. He was soon behind Warp. For a moment, he evaluated the tall man in front of him with his regard, as if taking the last confirmation and then with a nauseous voice blurted: "Ohoy, Darkmatter..."

For his misfortune, Warp winced and turned about. That was the end of his walking incognito.

"Nice to meet ya, mister traitor!" the spy of Zurg smirked to him.

Zarah gripped the hand of Warp and began to pull him away. "Run, now!" she gasped.

But Swack started to keep more noise. "Where do ya think you're going? I think there's someone that eagerly wants to meet you!"

Warp got in a total panic. He had not prepared to this at all. He somehow got so locked up for sudden fear that did not obey Zarah's command.

Next the spy clutched the right sleeve of Darkmatter's coat.

"Go away!" Warp hissed and tried to push the pest away, in a way that would not gather too much attention of the passing-by people. For the while, Zarah in the verge of despair jerked and twitched his flesh hand and ordered him to take a hike and fast.

Very soon the behaviour of Swack started to interest some aliens that were near Zarah and Warp. The spy kept repeating Warp's name aloud and finally, with a powerful effort, got his sleeve ripped away.

"Run, now!" Zarah interjected for the last time and got some life into her husband. She took as her job to punch Swack and then began rushing, holding Warp's hand.

 The fight had unfortunately drawn even more attention. A group of space rangers was holding a coffee break at an outdoor café, calmly sipping their hot drinks. Some yells soon reached their ears, powered with the word 'Darkmatter'. A lean, tall ranger stood up to see what the hazzle was about, there over the business street. His eyes happened to see just the occasion when Swack ripped Warp's sleeve off and his robotic arm was revealed.

"Boys, put yer coffee away! We have a big problem, if I'm not seeing a hallucination. That a guy over there, now running away, is Warp Darkmatter", he interjected.

"What?"

"After them, now!"

"No time to lose!" An interfered mess of shouts was heard.

The five rangers took their legs fast under them and got the crowd make room for them along the street.

"Stop it right there!" the leading ranger hollered after the fugitive.

"He is Darkmatter!" another one noted. "See that arm?"

"Look, he's got someone with him, he's dragging her by hand!"

For the moment, the parts between Zarah and Warp had changed: he was a way much faster runner than a woman 40 centimetres shorter.

"My goodness, he has captured someone! He's taking a woman as a hostage!"

"Maybe he is going to bring her to Zurg? We need to hinder that!"  

 Warp was in a real alarm, now. He quickly grasped Zarah and put her on his shoulder. There was no time for reflection, he had to get out of the crowd and FAST! Where had he parked his city speeder? It was behind the corned. He took a long jump and accelerated his run, jostling the aliens that were on his way and laying low miscellaneous objects.

Both the space rangers and Swack were after him, although the latter stayed in the shadows.

"Stop! In the authority of Star Command, stop!" the police officers shouted. Laser beams whizzed by as Warp bolted and panted forwards.

"No, no, don't shoot! You may hit the hostage!" one of the rangers scolded another one and prevented the fire.

"You, rookie ranger, go to the office and alarm help immediately! And go to check out whether there could be any information of the captive available!" an elder man commanded a freckle-faced youngster. 

While this, Warp had found his vehicle and started the engines. He got a bit in the air, but an explosion out of the blue shook the speeder and it crashed down to the pavement.

"Didn't I order NOT to laser? If the hostage gets hurt, it's the end of your career!" a ranger scolded the one that had fired without permission.

"But sir, I just stopped the ship! If we're after Darkmatter, isn't it..."

"No talk! We don't know who the woman in his fingers is! She may be someone very important person. You end up in jail if she gets injured because of a miss!"

"Now, run, we gotta get him!"

 Warp survived from the crash-landing, took his wife again on his shoulder and ran towards some factory grounds that looked abandoned. He had no idea where he could find a place to hide, cold fear filled his heart. He had to get out of here; he had to find a way to whiz back to Xaneda. It was not only he that was in a terrible danger, but the little loved one he had with him...

---Space Ranger office---

"Star Command, coming Star Command? Emergency situation in Trade World!" a ranger shouted to the comm. link.

Commander Nebula appeared to the vid phone. "What is it, ranger Tealc?"

"We need reinforcements, now! Warp Darkmatter is here and he has captured a young woman. We have a patrol of foot soldiers after him, but that is not enough! I'm afraid that there may be troops of Zurg in front of us, soon!"

Commander's face turned grave. "Darkmatter? No one has heard from him in a long time! Are you sure it was he?"

"Positive! And as I said, he has a hostage! We could not find information about her, but here are the descriptions: race is human, very short height, long, red hair..." he was cut short by Nebula, who anxiously shouted to the comm. device.

"I know who she is! Zurg is after her again! She's an engineer working for Star Command, Miss G'Deneb, I'm sure you know her! I send Team Lightyear to handle this, you go back to track Darkmatter!"

"Yes, sir, over and out!"

  
  
...to be continued... 


	8. Darkmatter meets his former Master again

8. Darkmatter Meets His Former Master Again

------Star Command HQ--------

 Nebula was nearly out of his mind. "Now, now, fast thinking... Zurg is after landanah. Who else the woman could be than Miss G'Debeb, she has her holiday! Why has she gone to Trade World?" He took the microphone and dialled the wrist communicator frequencies channel. He could soon get ranger Munchapper to the other end.

"Ranger, search for your team immediately! You are next on your way to Trade World! Warp Darkmatter has kidnapped engineer G'Deneb!"

Booster's hackles (if he had any hair) rose in the air and in a breeze he was running along the corridors and gathering Team Lightyear. Mira and XR were easy to find, but Buzz seemed to be nowhere. 

 _"How among the stars I sail, way beyond the moon... In my silver ship I sail, a dream without an end too soon..."_ A manly voice echoed from the shower rooms of the training hall. Water whirred playfully and sprinkled to the floor.

"Isn't that Buzz?" Booster noted when the rest of gang rushed by the space searching for their captain.

"It is him. Now there's no time to think about the intimacy, we have this emergency. We got to get him out of shower."

"Never thought Buzz was one of those corny shower-singers. At lest he ain't bawling _'O Sole Mio'_ in false note!" XR taunted.

 After Boosted had yelled and banged the door a ten times in order to get Buzz out, the Captain appeared to the threshold a bathrobe on, his hair wet and glued to his face. "What? Can't a ranger even sometimes clear himself after a heated training?" he spat angrily. His expression changed as he noticed the rest of the team gaping at him peculiarly. "What? What's so amazing?"

"You... got hair! We always thought you were bald!" XR spread his mechanical arms.

Now Buzz fingered his crown. "Oh, no, I forgot to wear my hood! Blast!"

"What's the thing about hiding your hair?

"Ermh... I don't like the colour." He made something up. In the eyes of the others there was nothing outlandish in his hair, it was short, shiny black, straight and coarse.

"But I guess you didn't come here juts to wonder my hair! What is it?" Buzz frowned.

"Oh, sorry, we're in the middle of an emergency! Warp Darkmatter has been seen in Trade World and assumingly he has a hostage! And the captive is possibly our distant friend scientist Miss G'Deneb!" Mira declared.

"Oh, craters! Well, this is a real alarm! No one has heard about Darkmatter in a long time and now he suddenly appears! I just get my suit and then, to infinity and beyond!" Buzz bolted to the dressing room and in a nanosecond flashed back, leading the team to the launch bay.

---Space (how extraordinary), the command deck of 42---

 Commander's voice raved from the comm. link: "You be extremely careful, Team Lightyear! I just heard a warning that Dreadnaught has been seen in the near space of Trade World! There's something fishy going on again! Zurg is apparently after miss G'Deneb! Why else would Darkmatter capture her?"

"Sir, we'll keep our eyes open! Over and out!" Buzz blurted back, sitting in his pilot chair.

Lightyear kept a long silence after the news. "Zurg... he just cannot stop playing the conquistador of the universe...  I don't understand the sick will to rule everything... and even, when I think about the destiny of my father..." he murmured to himself, but so loud that the rest of the team heard it, too.

"May I ask... but what happened to your...father, Captain? You talk about him so often but we don't actually know anything about him. What was his name?" Booster politely took the question up.

Buzz rubbed his chin for a while after putting the autopilot on. He was not sure whether he wanted to pick up painful things from his past, but agreed that it was maybe irritating for his team-mates to listen all the time to things they knew a piece of meteoroid about. "Well... my father died when I was five. Soon after my mother had passed the border... I don't know how she died, but I assume that she was murdered. So... my father was the ambassador of Planet Morph on Capital Planet. He died in very mysterious circumstances, killed by Zurg. His body was never found, it was postulated that Zurg... used some kind of neutron riffle to him so that his corpse was literally evaporated to the air..."

Everyone of Team Lightyear saw how painful this was to their leader. His fists clenched slowly and anger reddened his cheeks. "No one knows why Zurg killed him. And speaking of this Zurg... he was something completely new, then. He just appeared somewhere with a whole empire, dreadful arsenals of weapons directed towards the peaceful milky way. Those where the days that the Galactic Alliance widened fast to fight against this new evil. Planets and solar systems were terribly afraid of this new dictator and came to find shelter from the alliance of two Quadrants."

"How was your poppa called? Booster asked it but ya started blabbering about political coalitions", XR yawned.

Buzz ground his teeth to the arrogant robot. "Of course he was Lightyear like me! But... his forename was something... it was something so peculiar that no one actually could spell it. Something Zoxe--- Zoxedas¸---  he gurgled and spat the letters. Um... I'm sorry, but I really can't get it out of my mouth."

"Ev'rything that begins with Z is dreadful nowadays... except my Zarah..." XR smacked his lips and took a cunning expression.

"He didn't even have a nick?" Mira raised her brows.

Buzz sighed. "Well how do you think I called him when I was five? Maybe 'Dad'?"

"Do you got a picture of him?" Booster inquired.

Buzz raised his eyebrows with amazement. "Team, we're in the middle of an emergency. We are commanded to capture Warp Darkmatter. And you want to know eagerly how my father looked like? Now?"

"Well... the hyperspace is pretty boing. If ya got a pic, why dontcha show it us? Better amusement than to watch the time lines of passing solar systems", XR ironized.

Buzz exhaled in bother and typed something to the computer. "Allright, if it is so interesting. I download an old holo from the Galactic Alliance Security Database."

The computer kept a couple of beeps and then a medium-sized holo of a man in his mid-twenties appeared upon the holo-transmitter.

"Whoa! He was an impressive-looking guy!" XR interjected and took a closer look at the 3D-image. The man was dressed in a majestic-looking ambassador's mantle. He had very thick, black hair, long sideburns and the same dimple as Buzz. Athletic he was too, a lot sturdier than his son was. His dark-brown eyes attached Mira's attention. The regard was extremely sharp and a bit ferocious, framed by thick, wrinkled brows. Mostly then, he looked like Buzz, if not to mention that he was a bit over seven feet tall.

"How did ya, Captain, remain such a stump if your poppa was a giant like that?" XR mocked.

Buzz boiled in bitterness and he pushed the holo-closing button. "That's enough for family relations! Let him rest in peace." 

---Planet Z---

 "Ruhhahhahhahhaaaah! Muhahhahhahhaah!" the walls of the throne room echoed. "Finally, FINALLY he is in my claws! There's no way to escape my spies!" Zurg whooped with evil joy and flitted around his chamber. "This day, in the sands of time, has indicated to me my lucky day and his, sad to say, last one. But I'll show what is the revenge of the most magnificent Emperor ever!"

A grub tiptoed behind him. "My evil Emperor, your ship is ready, your low blackliness... emh... black lowliness."

"Oo, fine! I ought to go! The sooner, the later I get my fingers on him... I shall make sure that his end is slow, painful and horrible. He can be guaranteed that I will pay him back every defame he caused to my dark glory. You, beatles and other bands, make everything ready for beheading: may all my faithful allies and other henchmen be invited to witness this event. May it be both a lesson and a feast, I'm sure everybody of my reign wants to see how a traitor dies!"

"Uh, yes, sir!" the grub whined and left. He was positive that he would dig himself a hole to the ground and leave the happening in its own value.

"Oh, that was the best invention of today, a feast for fools! Now, ready for action. Evil rules!" he grinned disgustingly and headed to the launch bay. The menacing figure of Dreadnaught soon glided in the velvet vacuum.  

---Back in Trade World--- 

 A few hours later, Warp and Zarah had fled to a large factory hall. Nothing else suitable was there available for lurking. Into Killersville, which was the neighbour district, Warp would go with no price. Now this dusty, dark and messy industrial area had to serve them.

"I hope we can take a powder when the twilight falls..." he whispered to her. They had sat down behind some boxes to take a rest. There was not much help in his soothes for Zarah who gnawed her nails in verge of a panic reaction.

"Wesholdhave... weshould---have---..." she whimpered as she had lost the rest of her light of intelligence.

"Za... I'm so sorry... but all we can do is wait, now. I think we put the guy that was after us off our scent." He hugged her tight.

"I don't want you to die!" she sniffled under his arm.

"Shht... I'm quite sure that the rogue got caught by those rangers. At least it seems that they have handed over the whole thing."

"What if he did announce something to... Zurg? He was his spy!"

"Shht... maybe you should try to sleep a li'l. It'll go smoother after the sunset, then we're getting away from here", he mollified her.

 But how wrong Warp was. The space rangers waited at the fence of the factory grounds for the star cruiser that was promised to send from Star Command HQ. And what came to Swack, he hid also behind some boxes in the same building, carefully keeping eye on his pray. He was there agog for Zurg, for to show him, where the traitor, he wanted to get in his claws, was. 

 After two hours more, a dull hum filled the air. Something gigantic was coming down from the skies. The space rangers got their bodies stiff of fear. Massive hyper-hornets were landing to the messy yard. A small, private ship was in the middle of them, its jet engines roaring.

"It's Zurg himself! We can't attack with this amount of men!" a ranger whispered to another one in the hideout.

"Commander promised to send us reinforcements. They should be here any time!"

"They did send Team Lightyear to handle this; those rangers know best how to fight the Emperor."

 Protected by his robots, Zurg stepped out of his ship and went straight to a side entrance of one of the halls. There was Swack waiting for him, rubbings his fingers together, a greedy smirk on his face.

"Where are they?" Zurg let his hollow voice loud.

"Right over there, boss! They're like rabbits in a trip-wire"

"Well done, you shall be rewarded for this", Zurg's helmet widened to an abominable sneer.

"Okay, show me the money!" Swack licked his teeth and writhed his fingers even more.

Zurg rolled his eyes and glanced slighting the crook. "Money... they're too easy, just swing a couple of uni-bucks under their noses and they will give me their mothers into the bargain... how pathetic. However, practical. But what comes to Darkmatter, he did dare to rebel against MY supreme authority..." he thought before he took forth a bag of money from the shelter of his cloak. "Here you go. And now, get out of my way." He passed the bucks to the delight-squealing Swack and jostled him out of his way.

"Hornet CHoo-593 and all, whose last serial is Pu-PP-y050, will stay outside. Attack immediately if someone interferes with my scheme. The rest of you, come with your Master." the Emperor gave orders to his mecha-minions before he glided in.

 Poor Warp and his wife. Their hiding was quite futile faced by the infrared scanners of the robots. After hearing the thunder upon the hall, Warp had fled the place where they had stayed and had run madly after an appropriate shelter. There were old boxes, empty crates, abandoned carriages and some office cubicles, but was there any use for those, now? Not exactly, they did not give safeguard. Ten minutes passed and the ambush was closed. Two hyper-hornets stood now weapons aimed right to the lovers. Warp gradually retreated towards a wall and tightened his grip of Zarah, who in vain searched for asylum in his arms.

Soon a manic and wild laughter echoed in the hall, making the walls duplicate it many times. The threatening figure of Zurg dived up from the shadows and sleeked in the middle of the hornets.

"So, my search has come to its end!" he self-satisfied creaked his metal fingers against each other.

"And good day to you, Miss G'Deneb! I see that I meet more old friends!" His eyes flashed maliciously and blasted a laser beam towards her. She ducked towards Warp and survived without an injury.

"Darkmatter, Darkmatter, what a glorious future you had in front of you, indeed. And what did you do? Betrayed your Master!" Now nearly smoke was coming from Zurg's collars. "And WHY, may I ask, my 'loyal' apprentice" he ironicly continued, "Because of one pathetic WOMAN? You have had dozens of them before that one, wasn't you always basking in your evil glory and surrounding yourself with female beauty, Mister Casanova? What's making her so special that it was worth betraying ME? WHAT?"

"...you sick despot..." was the only thing Warp spat back.

"Mmm... 'sick despot?' Oh, the gratitude... the gratitude of everything I gave you. Didn't you have enough money? Enough lustrous fortune? Dark honour? Hm-hm-hm. So, now there's only left to think about the most wasting way to end your poor choices of life. The dark side is not left easily, it will remember... and have its revenge." The Emperor fingered his helmet and soon turned his fierce smile to Warp.

"Now I know! Thanks again to my supreme intelligence... You shall be slowly tortured to dead with that electronic chair your little chick was so keen on once!"

Warp's mouth distorted into a horrible grimace. His wife under his arm burst into tears and in her sad state hollered: "No, no..."

"Oh, yes. I forgot the reason for your deception. I'll make it even funnier to you, you can watch and enjoy when I at first fry her in that same chair and then it's your turn!" A mad laugh followed the sentence.

Warp therefore let a fierce roar out of his mouth. Bitter tears rose up to the corners of his eyes and he attempted to attack Zurg, yet in vain. The hornets grapped him and threw him against the wall.

"You won't touch her, ya filthy living demon!" he cursed.

"Sure I will, still there are even better ways to make you see how she can suffer. By the way, my young apprentice, that name 'living demon' is just appropriate for me, thank you. I shall have it carved to the side of the Dreadnaught. Of course you are not invited to see that, you will be ashes before that."

Darkmatter frowned at him.

"One little detail, may I ask, my coxcomb henchman, why aren't you using your handy machine arm to defend yourself and your pretty little sweetheart?"

No answer.

A wide smirk spread on Zurg's amorphic helmet. "I see. it's functionless, isn't it? No maintenance from the grubs in a while, the parts become little oxidized, don't they? But this babbling is getting boring. Hornets, take them to Dreadnaught." He clicked his fingers and the robots grapped both Warp and Zarah.

She shed tears madly and fought against the hornets with her full strength. Warp therefore seemed to have sunken into depression, there was no spirit left in him. The image, the horror of being forced to see how his dearest would face her end was too much for him to think. Was it like a closed circle that would happen? How he desperately had tried to save her from Zurg... and now the history would repeat itself? In the middle of her futile fight, his solemn voice reached her ears: "I'm sorry... I should have listened to you and stayed where I was. Goodbye, my love..."

........To be continued........


	9. Facing Buzz Lightyear

9. Facing Buzz Lightyear

After hearing Warp's mournful words, Zarah was about to sob something similar back, but an explosion cut her following sentence short. Zurg, who was in front of them, winced. Next the Emperor was disgruntled aware that ranger Munchapper had just flattened a couple of hornets to pancakes by jumping down from the stairs. The Jo-Adian was followed by Buzz, Mira and XR.

"Lightyear! Why did you have to interfere with my best revenge scheme yet?" Zurg shook his fist. "Hornets, get them!"

 As the robots were stupid, they all reached to obey the command, even those holding Warp and Zarah. When Zurg was back against them, they sneaked out from the door that was just beside the back wall.

"XR and Booster, take the left side, ranger Nova, you're with me!" Buzz quickly gave orders how to split up and start to blast the nauseous metal pests out of way. A heated battle began, which was done in several buildings of the abandoned industry halls. It was merely a cat-dog race, where the parts turned upside down every half a minute. Zurg chased Buzz, Mira chased hornets, Warp hid Buzz, XR chased Zurg, Booster chased Warp, a pack of hornets chased Mira, Buzz was again after Zurg... there seemed to be no end in sight until Team Lightyear had crashed so many droids of the Emperor that he thought it better to slowly retreat. He sneaked out with shelter aid of some smoke that came from broken mechas and soon was far away from Trade World. Cursing, hissing and boiling he had once again to admit that he was left without his vengeance. However, he would have it, which was for sure, so long that the brown eyes under his disguising helmet kept having some life.

"Two targets, two different plans. You, Lightyear, will be turned to serve me; sooner or later... as it should have been from the beginning on... after your pathetic father was history... and you, Darkmatter, you will be cinder in the wind as soon as I shall meet you again..."

His ship swept towards the Dark Empire from where it had as silently appeared. 

 The fight was not yet over in the in the industry halls. Zurg had left all his hornets to harrow both Team Lightyear and the fleeing lovers. The Emperor namely had the light hope that one of his useful assistants might blow the traitor to the skies, as even the weapon arm of Warp was functionless. So, Warp had still two dangers to escape. Behind boxes and scaffolds he ran low and protected his fragile woman from the missiles of the robots.

 He and Zarah soon got into open space when they were in search of a door, out to the city. But out of the blue there was a massive hornet harassing them.

"Look out, Zarah!" Warp interjected and jostled her to the floor from the front of the droid. The plasma doze it had shot, zipped by and smashed to the wall, making it smoulder. The robot was soon blasted to smithereens backwards. For the same time Warp was helping her up.

"You leave that woman alone!" a fierce shout came upon Darkmatter. He let go of her when the alien saw Buzz aiming him with his laser arm, ready to shoot. Sweat began to trickle along his neck. One danger had been avoided and now there were more warriors to snuff him out? He paced towards the wall that was behind him. It was being between two obstacles, now.

"Finally I get you in my target, traitor!" Buzz hissed from the middle of his teeth. "This time you won't get away with this!"

Warp answered nothing, only bit his lips.

Buzz was constantly ready to shoot. How could he have been aware that Warp's blaster arm was not a blaster arm any longer? He was deadly sure that the alien might turn it in a microsecond to a plasma riffle or relevant and give him the touch of the grim reaper. Buzz sensed subconsciously that there was something peculiar in Warp, but did not pay more attention to it, not in a situation like this.

"Where were you taking that woman? To Zurg? Answer me!" Buzz' eyes flamed.

Now Warp spat something with a furious expression. "Ya think so? Guess I'm never allowed to live any private life without Mr. Nice Guy and even ya astro-whatever-rescue-rangers after me."

"I know your privacy! Nothing but more crimes! Now you tell me WHAT Zurg wanted from this woman?"

"To kill her, just like he'd slaughter me!" Warp muttered and accidentally raised his right arm so that Buzz thought him being ready to fire. The ranger was to push his laser button. 

 Then, yelling from the shadows, Zarah jumped right in front of Warp for the last moment. "You won't kill him!" she roared fiercely, tears glimmering in her eyes.

Buzz startled and gave a curse: "Get away, woman! Can't you understand what's going on here?"

"I understand very well! You won't shoot him!"

"Get out of my way! Are you insane, can't you understand who are you protecting? He's a dangerous criminal! Didn't he just kidnap you?" he sprawled his spit flying in the air.

But Zarah kept her position and only gave back more loudly: "I know who he is, Warp Darkmatter! He didn't kidnap me, I willingly went with him!"

"What? How can you...?"

"This man saved me from Zurg! I'm only alive because of him, so if you fire at him, you have to finish me off first!"

Buzz' jaw drooped open and he attached totally his regard at this little woman. "WHAT?" he interjected.

"That's right! Don't you remember then, half a year ago, when everything was destroyed in Deneveria? You came with your team to rescue me from Yrmh. Do you still believe I could have fled Zurg alone? Darn it, I was in coma for days after Zurg had tortured me..." she took a long, teary inhale to get more kick out of her. "You think I fled in COMA? No, it was WARP who betrayed Zurg for to save me! Without him I'd never be here!"

Buzz' expression had gone even more thunderstruck and he slowly put down his laser arm, gaping at her.

Tears rolled now down her face as she continued her discourse: "He... he took the care of me while I was indolent, risked his life just to save me, darn it, he fed me, warmed me, kept me alive when I was weak, found me shelter, tended my injuries. Can't you understand, both my ankles were dislocated, could I had had walked alone in a condition like that? Because of him, a hundred men were saved from Zurg..." Her rave outburst began to assess her strength and voice. Her tone rose up to falsetto as she hyperventilating screamed the last words to Buzz: "So, you want to kill him? Fine, I die with him, just cut me into pieces with your light saw, I don't care any more!"

 The attention of the Captain was drawn elsewhere and he was not aware of the remaining hornet that was behind him. Zarah's scream made him for the last second notice that it fired towards him. He quickly ducked, so did Zarah, but Warp did his action a bit too late. He roared in pain as an ion dose whizzed by his left arm, partly melted the sleeve stuck into his skin and put the muscles bleed. Next the robot seemed to take him as the target. When Warp ran to another room for to get away from the line of fire, what else did the hornet do but followed him. Buzz jumped in the air and lasered, but missed Zurg's machine. Before he had the time to get into the room, an explosive noise reached out of there. Then, some clack. Now Buzz entered the threshold and shot the large robot broken. It collapsed to the floor and let a sad view open. The floor was empty, only there was some rags of cloth and a huge puddle of blood.

"Oh, no..." Buzz put a hand on his forehead.

Zarah, who had got on her legs, peeked in and got her hackles in the air. "No, no, NO!" she stammered. 

 Lightyear stood in front of her his arms hanging powerlessly. Zarah could get nothing any more out of her mouth, she drooped back to her knees and cried madly. 

"He's gone..." Buzz ascertained and gradually took steps to her.

She raised her regard to see the remains once more. With her both hands she gripped her hair and roared in emotional pain.

"He... I guess the hornet blasted him into... ions. The room is empty. There is no way he could have escaped," the Captain sighed.

Lightyear was silent and demure. Years he had been fighting, chasing his traitor ex-partner. Now he was to hear this kind of things. So... this why Zurg had been here. He was after Darkmatter. This was the reason Buzz had not heard about one of the most wanted villains of the galaxy in a long time. The memories beyond years let him descend into his own world: when Warp had been his best friend, his fellow ranger... 

"Why... why didn't you tell me this...?" he sighed as he kneeled to Zarah.

"Tell you what? The thing that he saved me? He himself beseeched me then not to mention him with a single word. It was for his safety! That was the least I could do him for to compensate for my obligation!" she sobbed.

"This whole thing... it's like a shock for me... I should have known! I... well, think about it! This all, if he really did save you and helped even get the other workers out of Planet Z... I mean... it could have brought him an immediate amnesty of Galactic Alliance... then, six months ago!" Buzz extended his arms.

"I kept it secret because I wanted to protect him from Zurg, before all! Now it's too late to whine, he's gone, I've lost him again...!" she croaked and slumped to the floor.

 Buzz went more earnest. He began to comprehend the situation, keepsakes from last year came slowly into his mind. Zarah had been a weak, crying wraith, then, when he for the first time had met her. The same she was now, the similarity of the occasion was salient. The moaning woman in front of him maybe had some feelings for Darkmatter... and perhaps he had been there to respond to them. But that was not the most important thing that racked Buzz' mind, it was the facing of the facts about Warp... that after all these years he would indicate the values he had as a young man, before joining the dark lord. In his heart he had ages hoped that some day he could meet again the friend that had been eager to defend the good.

 Was it true that he could have been there again...? But what Warp lastly had been, when he had fought with him before the case of Miss G'Deneb, he had been cold and ruthless, totally indifferent towards any virtues. What had changed him? He had to find it out.

"Why... why did he save you?" the ranger quietly asked.

"He... said... he couldn't stand to see me getting killed..." was the weak answer.

"But... that has not mattered anything to him since he left Star Command. He has been destroying people without any kind of conscience... why this?" he inquired.

"I don't want to talk about it! He's gone! That knowledge warms no one any more!"

 Lightyear was cut short from his thoughts as he heard XR's sarcastic tone coming at his ear.

"Alright, we did the dirty job again. Who's the lazy one here to sit on the floor when we others gotta wrestle with hornets?" But the robot grew uneasy as his electronic eyes attached to Zarah. "My sweetie! What did ya Buzz do to her 'cause she's weeping again?"

Rare it was, but now Buzz lost his temper totally. He gripped the robot from the ground and shook it so that the joints clattered. "YOU SHUT UP AT ONCE! I swear I'll blast you to pieces if you open your maw today any more!"

XR got very scared and slipped out to search for protection behind Booster.

"What happened? Where's Agent Z? Miss G'Deneb, are you all right?" Mira came to them.

"No! NO! I am not all right!" Zarah manically shed tears.

"Ranger Nova... Darkmatter is... dead. And... how can I say this... he was not a henchman of Zurg any more. He... she..." Buzz kept a pause on front of the thunderstruck rangers. Sorrow strangled his heart like an iron band. "Darkmatter was not evil any more. He was the one that saved this miss from Zurg then, when we were on job and got her away from Yrmh. But now... a hornet of Zurg blasted him away... or I guess that was so."

The rest of the rangers remained long silent. The only voice around was Zarah's gradually quietening sobbing.

...To be continued... 


	10. The Amnesty

10. The Amnesty

Zarah was left alone for a while before Team Lightyear left the messy stocks with her. Weakly she went to the room where the last catastrophe had happened. She wanted to see whether there was left something from her loved one, maybe a piece of his coat to be taken with as the last memory. It was as if the heavens had been laughing her, making her life to a constant tragedy. Three days she had been happily married and what was she now? A widow...?

 As she inspected the room, she noticed something odd on the floor. It was a footprint of a heavy boot, treaded in the dust that covered the end part of the space. A bit further, there was another. It was aimed towards a pile of old boxes. And... when she peeked behind them, there was a broken window, without the glass. Just appropriate in size for a man to crawl. On the sill were some blood marks. Her watery eyes flied open. No... Could it be...? The frames opened a view to a dirty back yard with miry sand as its pavement. A gate hung in the low fence with one hinge. As she leered at the ground, she distinguished a few more bootprints on the mud. They vanished towards the fence.  A drastic shiver went along her spine and hot tears came back to her eyes. 

"Did he... did he get away? I-is h-he... alive?" she kept repeating in her mind like some mantra, panting and gaping at the yard. 

 Buzz came to inspect the room too, while Zarah was still there. He needed to think. He needed to see with his own eyes what had happened. Like Zarah's, his jaw dropped open when she pointed at the marks.

"Could... he be alive?" he whispered and shook his head.

"I don't know", she inspected the floor with lachrymal eyes. "If he was... how long would he survive out there, bleeding...? Zurg after him..." she sniffed.

"After all these years... I hear that his heart had changed..." Buzz touched the sill and graveness shadowed his eyes.

"Would you do one thing for me, Captain?" she quietly asked. "You talked about the possibility of getting an amnesty for him... if he is out there, if he would survive somehow... he would have at least one danger less after him. Would you take this thing to the court?"

Buzz put both hands on her shoulders and looked her with compassionate eyes. "I promise. I make it sure that no one of the Universe Protection Unit is never hunting him again. That man has purified his soul and past in everyone's eyes." 

-------------

 Two weeks passed fast. Zarah was in the middle of a trial. She was being interrogated every day and asked to testify several things in front of the Galactic Alliance Superior Court. It was now all about Warp, she told her story how he had saved her, how he had betrayed his former master and given her all the information about the infiltrators in Star Command and so on. But, not with a single word was told about Xaneda or the latest happenings there. Tiredly she answered the same questions day after day, her heart heavy about that Warp was out there somewhere, maybe dead, maybe injured, who could know. During the first days of her comeback, she had eagerly hoped to get some kind of message from her again lost love, but in vain. The black and lonely nights had followed each other just like before this, there was no one to console her in her deep depression.

 Then came the day that she was for the last time invited to the court to hear the decision concerning Warp. The judgement came straight from Madame President. In this case, the criminal was so dangerous and wanted that no common lawyer was there to do the resolution alone. The case was recycled even through the parliament. Sobbing in her tissue, she listened to the words that told that Warp Darkmatter was given an amnesty because of his extraordinary deed. With watery eyes, Zarah stared the empty seat beside her. He should have been there, to hear this... her lover, her husband... he would be a free man, if only, if only he was alive somewhere. But in her sorrow she was in the belief that he was now assassinated by some of the bounty hunters of Zurg, or simply had not survived the hornet-attack. 

 In the first row, Buzz Lightyear sat and bowed his head. He winced as he heard the judge concluding the amnesty declaration to these words: "Assumingly former wanted by the police Warp Darkmatter is dead. This remains as formal announcement of his decision to pardon. We all want him to rest in peace if the information from the reliable source is true." Sorrow wrinkled the forehead of the captain. Now as he finally would hear after all these years that his ex-partner had left the dark side, he was pronounced dead. Too late... but at least there was the fact that Darkmatter had gained good reputation after his passing... unless he still was alive.

 Zarah left the court alone. Buzz had offered her a lift home, but she had declined with thanks. She wanted just be alone, drabble in her bereavement. She did not have any interest in taking a cab speeder; she just thought to walk home the whole five-kilometre distance. So, she limbed along the streets like a ghost, then decided to take a shortcut to her apartment through a shanty town-looking district. She knew that the streets here were not actually very safe for an alone woman, but she did not care any more. What was there left for her? Her career. Yeah, right. Nothing but work. Emotional pain gashed and ripped her heart and put it literally beat in wrong rhythm. Extrasystolis, again, not dangerous but disgusting. And she oddly felt like someone would have been watching her all the time. There was this nauseous, sixth sense, that everything was not right behind her back. En route home, she even turned a couple of times about to see, whether there was something back there, but all it seemed to be the torment of her depressed mind.

 She had turned to a brick road that very narrowly was delineated between two grimy and steep penthouses. The sun was gradually going down, its last beams stretched over the roofs to the backstreet. However, Zarah did not have any more strength to walk forwards. She had prevented her most bitter tears till the last minute, but now she collapsed to the ground and began to cry hysterically. She scratched the dirty wall with her hands and ripped her hair. Blood oozed from her fingertips that gradually were rubbed sore against the coarse concrete.

 But she startled quite a lot as she felt a light touch on her shoulder. Trough her fluctuating and blurry vision she saw somebody kneeled beside her as she weakly turned her regard upwards. With her sleeve, she wiped a bit the tears away and looked the person from toes to head. It was a man, dressed in a huge grey cloak, which was put deep over his head. From the abysses of the hood, were distinguished the frame of large black sunglasses. The hand on her shoulder was bandaged upwards from the thumb, those wrappers continuing inside the sleeve. In the middle finger glimmered a forge-decorated platinum ring.

Her eyes went wide open and her palate dried as she tried to stammer something. The man kissed a tear away from her cheek and whispered: "Don't cry, Zarah..."

She inhaled deep closing her eyes and nuzzled into his embrace. 

"Shht... I may be formally dead to the rest of the world, but for you, I'm alive. The seals of xaret¨a are not broken, I'm here for you, the life goes on... " the man continued.

After some time they both stood up and left the messy road, Zarah pressed tight under the arm of the shadowy stranger. Together they vanished towards the sunset, wherever they then decided to head their way.

  


...  
...  
...  
So, in the gust of wind we're back together  
Your beauty living beside me  
The shadows have gone  
They've left my heart  
Only the smile  
is there,  
now. 

  
**

THE END

**  


* * *

Yoda © Lucasfilm, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command © Disney/Pixar, Choi Zarah G'Deneb © Engineer Jess 


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